Crescentrating.com and Irhal.com announce strategic alliance to boost fast growing Halal Friendly travel market

Online, June 15, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Crescentrating.com, the world leader in providing "Halal Friendly" rating for travel & tourism services and facilities, and Irhal.com, the leading online Islamic travel portal in the Middle East, today announced a strategic alliance.

The agreement initially calls for the listing on irhal.com of all hotels that have been rated by Crescentrating's Halal Friendly hotel rating, with further collaboration envisaged in the future between the two companies.

With the Halal Friendly travel market emerging as one of the fastest growing segments in the travel industry, this alliance between the Singapore based Crescentrating and Dubai based Irhal will further increase the awareness of Halal Friendly travel facilities and services.

Crescentrating's hotel rating, launched last year, rates hotels on a scale of 1 to 7. Apart from taking into consideration the very specific needs of the Halal conscious travellers such as prayer facilities, Halal food etc, it also takes into account family friendly facilities, environment friendliness etc. As such, according to Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of Crescentrating, it will also be a useful indicator for the travellers who are looking for family friendly hotels.

Irhal is the first Islamic travel portal aimed at outbound travellers from the Middle East. Latest special offers from airlines and hotels as well as comprehensive city guides with information on tourist attractions, shopping, prayer timings, mosque locations and halal restaurants in over 70 cities are featured in irhal.com. "We are the world's most comprehensive Arabic language travel website and our audience is predominantly Muslim. They want assurance about the Halal friendliness of hotels and this collaboration with Crescentrating will Inshallah encourage more hotels to cater to the unique needs of Muslims," said Irfan Ahmad, CEO of Irhal.com.

"We are extremely pleased with this partnership. Our hotel rating will give Irhal's visitors credible and trusted information to make their travel choices," added Fazal.