Developing halal foods for halal tourism in West Nusa Tenggara Province

Lombok Island located in the West Nusa Tenggara Province has become a popular destination for domestic and international tourist. In the last five years, the demand of halal tourism including halal food was also increased especially for muslim tourist from around the world. This study is aimed to describe the importance and potential of developing of halal foods to support halal tourism development in the West Nusa Tenggara Province. The method used in this research was descriptive method. The primary data were obtained from direct observation and experiment, while the secondary data collected from other related sources. The results showed that foods or culinary is one of the very important aspect that needed to support tourism development. People come to the area are not only interested to see the beauty and unique of Lombok, but also want to enjoy delicious and halal foods. Therefore, developing halal foods is very crucial to enhance halal tourism program in Lombok. Halal foods are made of halal substances and with halal processes. In fact, there are many foods that commercially available which are not halal or questionable. Gelatin was one of the food ingridients that commonly used as stabilizer in ice cream production. However, gelatin commercial was commonly produce from swine. Therefore, konjac flour that contains high glucomanan can be used as alternative of gelatin from swine to ensure halal status of ice cream or other food products