ITC ORGANISES SEMINAR ON GLOBAL MUSLIM TRAVEL INDEX 2022 FOR MALAYSIA’S TOURISM INDUSTRY PLAYERS

SHAH ALAM, MALAYSIA, 14 JULY 2022: Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) presented the Islamic Tourism Centre, MasterCard and Crescentrating Seminar on the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2022 held at at Mardhiyyah Hotel and Suites, Shah Alam today.

ITC hosted the seminar to provide industry practitioners and stakeholders with insights into the steadfast growth of Islamic Tourism and to showcase Malaysia’s advantage in leveraging the Islamic Tourism ecosystem towards sustainable tourism development. 

Dato’ Dr. Mohmed Razip Hasan, Director General, Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) said: “Malaysia has consistently ranked number 1 in the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) since its launch in 2015 until the most recent one in 2022. This seminar is held to inspire more of Malaysia’s tourism industry players to see Islamic Tourism as a sustainable and profitable sector. We also want to share why and how our industry players can leverage on this recognition.”

He added: “Malaysia’s achievement in GMTI 2022 proves that Malaysia has a strong foundation in Islamic Tourism. We hope that more Malaysia tourism industry players will see the potential of the Muslim tourist market and pivot their products and services to meet this market’s needs. I believe this is what’s needed for our tourism industry to rebuild itself after the pandemic, and I would encourage more tourism industry players to also focus on the Muslim tourist market as they strategise for recovery.” 

The seminar was joined by industry practitioners and stakeholders, including travel agencies, hotels, spas, tourism associations, officials, and many more who wanted to understand the potential of Islamic Tourism and to invest their knowledge, effort and capital on these burgeoning markets.

A variety of interesting topics were addressed by the panel of speakers including:

• GMTI Overview

by Aisha Islam, 

Vice President – SEA Products & Innovation Lead, Master Card

• GMTI 2022 & ACES Framework

by Fazal Bahardeen, 

Chief Executive Officer, Crescentrating

• CES “Communications” – Success Stories

by Raudha  Zaini, 

Strategic Partnerships & Projects Lead, Crescentrating and HalalTrip

• ACES “Services”- Success Stories

by Nurul Ain Azhar

Curriculum Manager & Partner Engagement Lead, Crescentrating

• GMTI Panel Session

Moderated by: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hafiz Hanafiah, 

Deputy Dean – Faculty of Tourism Management Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia

Panellists:

Dato’ Dr. Mohmed Razip Hasan, 

Director General, Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC)

Datuk Mohd Ilyas Zainol Abidin, 

Executive Chairman, Ample Prospects Sdn Bhd

Mr. John Burke, 

Deputy General Manager, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) 

Mr. Fazal Bahardeen, 

Chief Executive Officer, Crescentrating

Besides celebrating Malaysia’s win as “Top Muslim-Friendly Destination of the Year (OIC)”, the seminar also gave recognition to the other Malaysian recipients of the Halal in Travel Awards, namely Mardhiyyah Hotel and Suites (for “Muslim-Friendly Hotel of the Year”), Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (for “Muslim-friendly Convention & Exhibition Centre of The Year”), and Datuk Mohd Ilyas Zainol Abidin, Executive Chairman, Ample Prospects Sdn Bhd (for “Halal Hotel Pioneer”).

Next, the grand launching of Mardhiyyah Hotel and Suites was officiated by YB Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy Shukri, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia. Mardhiyyah Hotel and Suites which took home the “Muslim-friendly Hotel of the Year Award” at the Halal in Travel Awards, is also a Platinum-ranked Muslim-Friendly Accommodation Recognition (MFAR) hotel certified by ITC.

To strengthen the Muslim-Friendly tourism ecosystem, ITC developed the MFAR, a programme that allows Muslim travelers to easily identify hotels with Muslim-friendly facilities in Malaysia. Currently, there are 54 MFAR hotels in Malaysia, among them Mardhiyyah Hotel and Suites. These MFAR hotels have taken the initiative of tapping into the Muslim tourist market by ensuring their products, services, and facilities meet the faith-based needs of Muslim travellers. 

About GMTI:

For its remarkable efforts to continuously cater to the needs of Muslim travellers, Malaysia was once again revealed as the top-ranking destination in the GMTI 2022 report. In light of this, Malaysia, received the award for “Top Muslim-Friendly Destination of the Year (OIC)” at the Halal in Travel Global Summit (HITGS) 2022, a physical event organised by MasterCard and CrescentRating held in Singapore.

The GMTI measures the overall performance of the global Muslim traveller market. The report helps businesses and the tourism industry to better understand the Islamic Tourism landscape and offers insights from top-ranked destinations. 

—– END —–

Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) is an entity under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Malaysia tasked to develop the Islamic tourism segment for Malaysia. It advocates for Muslim-friendly tourism (MFT) by offering research and market intelligence, training, industry development consultation, Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality (MFTH) service standards and certification, and information exchange.

In 2021, ITC received two key awards, i.e. Strategic Business Alliance Award at The BrandLaureate World Halal Best Brand E-Branding Awards 2021, and Best Islamic Tourism Leadership Gold Award 2021 by Malaysia Tourism Council. These are recognition of ITC’s efforts and endeavours in formulating new strategies to meet the new normal of the business environment to ensure business continuity and sustainability, notwithstanding its role to develop and grow the Islamic tourism segment in Malaysia.

In addition, Malaysia was recently named top country in the world in the MFT sector by the State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) Report 2022 by DinarStandard in partnership with Salaam Standard and supported by Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.

Malaysia also retained the top-ranked destination in the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2022, a position it has defended since the launch of the Index in 2015.

These recognitions are an added motivation for ITC to continue to strengthen its efforts in being a prime mover and leading institution to ensure Malaysia is at the forefront of MFTH.

For further details, kindly contact:

Islamic Tourism Centre
(Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia)
Level 13, No. 2 Tower 1, Jalan P5/6,
Precinct 5, 62200 Putrajaya, Malaysia
Tel: 03-8891 7177 or via email itc@mymuslimtrip.com/v2

For media-related matters, contact the Corporate Communications team:

Anis, Manager, +6012 321 9137, anis@mymuslimtrip.com/v2
Nadhirah, Sr. Executive, +6019 356 0530, nadhirah@mymuslimtrip.com/v2
Ainaa Izzati, Asst. Executive, +6010 266 2535, ainaa@mymuslimtrip.com/v2

Follow ITC on these social platforms:
Facebook: Islamic Tourism Centre
Twitter: @itc_my
Instagram: @itc_my
Youtube: Islamic Tourism Centre