ITC COMMISSIONS 10 NEW ISLAMIC TOURISM RESEARCH GRANTS (ITRG)

Putrajaya, 10 Feb 2021: Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) has commissioned ten research projects through the Islamic Tourism Research Grant (ITRG) programme.

The successful recipients from various academic institutions in Malaysia will utilise the grant to study diverse areas of Islamic tourism including big data analysis on Muslim travellers’ perceptions, Muslim-friendly spa requirements, branding of Muslim-friendly destinations, medical tourism for Muslim tourists, and models of sustainable Islamic tourism.

Director General of ITC, Dato’ Dr. Mohmed Razip Hasan said: “Islamic Tourism Centre, being the only governmental agency of its kind in the world focused on the development of Islamic tourism through establishing standards and certification, aims to elevate the awareness for the economic potential of the Muslim tourist market to businesses involved in the tourism and hospitality industry.”

“We want to enrich the existing knowledge and information surrounding Islamic tourism and Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality services so that more businesses, entrepreneurs, destination management bodies, tourism industry players, and investors will know the economic value of this market,” Dr. Mohmed Razip said.

He added: “We believe that the research conducted and findings presented later can be beneficial in strengthening existing policies and the entire Islamic tourism ecosystem to better serve the needs of this growing and high-value tourist market. The ten research projects were chosen because they seek to shed light on the many opportunities and prospects available in developing Islamic tourism and Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality services.”

“Our work to create this awareness is not only limited to the funding of such important and groundbreaking efforts. Since 2009, ITC has been advocating for Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality through our business outreach programmes, training, consultation and technical support, as well as the Muslim-friendly accommodation recognition (MFAR) programme. Another critical aspect of our job is to create industry linkages worldwide to establish quality standards for Islamic tourism that would set the benchmark for other destinations to follow,” he added.

The ten ITRG recipients were selected from a total of nearly 240 submissions received between October and December 2019. Due to the restrictions imposed in Malaysia to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic, their research work will be carried out in 2021.