The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consideration of halal tourism branding as a policy of increasing tourist visits in the West Nusa Tenggara Province which has lack of support from stakeholders by Rational Choice Theory. This research used qualitative data collected by in-depth  interviews using interview guide with key informants which is determined by the purposive sampling technique. Complementing the data requirements, a documentation study and non-participant observation were conducted. Each data found was analyzed using interactive model approach and the validity was tested using data credibility criterion.  The study found that the reason of the  halal tourism  policy implementation in West Nusa Tenggara Province is that  halal terminology is  a set of values sourced from muslim tourists’ belief, Indonesia’s willingness to be the halal tourism center, the increase of world muslims population, and further motivation from  the award as the world best halal destination. The reason is rational choice because of  increasing tourist visits. This study was conducted in an area with a major Muslim population. Therefore, this implies that is possible to have a different rationality assessment if it is conducted in different areas with different theological beliefs of majority society and superior tourism attraction characteristics of a region. Given the size of Muslim population globally, local governments need to be affirmative towards the  Islamic branding through halal tourism policies to increase Muslim tourist visits because Islam as a system of beliefs is one of the factors that influences Muslim tourist behavior in choosing tourism destinations and products. Although studies on Islamic branding and halal tourism have been carried out by many researchers, this paper provides a new study of the rationality of the choice of Islamic branding in local tourism policy for the interests of regional tourism attractions. Halal tourism can be a medium for the moderation of economic and religious value interests.

Keywords

Islamic Branding, Rational Choice, Policy Formulation, Halal Tourism, Muslim