PREPARATION FOR REOPENING OF TRAVEL KEY TO ATTRACTING MUSLIM TOURISM MARKET TO MALAYSIA

Malaysia’s tourism industry players in Malaysia were provided insights on all things regarding the Muslim travel market in a recent webinar targetted specifically to this segment. Picture: A majestic Kuala Lumpur skyline at dusk.

PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA, 13 AUGUST: The Muslim-friendly Malaysia webinar series organised by Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) and CrescentRaing continued on Thursday, 5 August, this time aimed at giving insights to Malaysia’s tourism industry players and stakeholders about the meaning, potential and opportunities of Islamic Tourism in preparation for tourism recovery post-COVID-19.

In his welcome remarks, Director-General of ITC, Dato’ Dr. Mohmed Razip Haji Hasan established that Islamic Tourism was the overarching umbrella under which are the “concepts and models being introduced in the market like Muslim-Friendly Tourism (MFT) or also known in Bahasa Malaysia as Pelancongan Mesra Muslim.” 

In allaying fears that Muslim-Friendly branding may turn away conventional tourists, Dato’ Dr. Mohmed Razip said: “The Muslim-Friendly Tourism is a marketing concept which is introduced by Malaysia in the last few years at OIC level and now it has been well accepted by many countries including non OIC. It was designed and developed to attract the growing size of global Muslim tourist markets.”  

He pointed out that Malaysia was a destination that welcomed both Muslim and Non-Muslim markets, and thus industry players should have products and services that catered to both. “While we fulfil the basic needs and requirements of a tourist, we also should be ready to serve the Muslim’s faith-based needs during their visit here. This applies to international and domestic tourists.” 

Dato’ Dr. Mohmed Razip anticipated that once travel restrictions are eased, travellers would want to embark on holidays again, giving due priority to such things as the quality of the experience, cleanliness, health, and safety. 

“Coming out of this pandemic, we will see travellers — regardless of religion — that are increasingly concerned with these aspects of tourism, too. It won’t be surprising to see more tourists choosing tourism and hospitality products and services that align with these values…which are some of the qualities that define Muslim-Friendly Tourism and Hospitality,” he said.

Malaysia’s recent pole position in the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2021 draws attention to Malaysia’s potential in Islamic Tourism and Muslim-Friendly Tourism and Hospitality and how Malaysia could grow the market further, he said.

Noting the growing competition in the Islamic Tourism space, Dato’ Dr. Mohmed Razip said: “We must have a stronger tourism ecosystem built on proper infrastructure, service, products, business model, skilled workforce, visionary leadership and management, and branding and communications.” 

He said that with the strong support of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, ITC was ready to support Malaysia’s tourism industry players to ramp up efforts in developing a robust Islamic Tourism landscape. 

He added: “Through ITC’s range of webinars such as the one today, our training programmes, consultancy and advisory services, standards and certification initiatives, we are here to help you plan and build your organisation towards meeting the market needs of the Muslim tourist market.”

Other speakers of the panel in the session included Mr. Fazal Bahardeen, CEO, CrescentRating, who focused on the topic of industry preparedness for the Muslim travel market post-COVID-19, namely, building recovery scenarios, gauging actions of other destinations, and working on capacity building and marketing strategies.

He said that it was important for Malaysia to identify the top outbound Muslim markets and monitor their readiness to travel. By keeping track of this, Malaysia would then be able to initiate marketing and promotions efforts directed at them. He advised industry players to also keep abreast of what other destinations are doing to prepare themselves for the reopening of travel and take similar actions.

Meanwhile, Mdm. Raudha Zaini, Strategic Partnerships & Projects Lead, CrescentRating & HalalTrip, and Mdm. Nurul Ain Azhar, Curriculum Manager & Partner Engagement Lead, CrescentRating, emphasised the importance of certification, education, and marketing and promotions, in gearing destinations towards travel readiness for the Muslim travel market. 

Among the tips they shared were for industry players to create travel guidebooks and update web content to showcase Malaysia’s Muslim-friendly experiences that would inspire Muslim travellers to book holidays to Malaysia once restrictions eased.

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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) services standards and certification, and information exchange.

In 2021, ITC was named the recipient of the Strategic Business Alliance Award at The BrandLaureate World Halal Best Brand E-Branding Awards 2021. It is a 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 named top country in the region in the MFT sector by the State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) Report 2020/21. Malaysia also retained the top-ranked destination in the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2021, 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,
Level 13, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia
No. 2 Tower 1, Jalan P5/6,
Precinct 5, 62200 Putrajaya, Malaysia
Tel: 03-8891 7177 or via email itc@mymuslimtrip.com/v2

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Twitter: @itc_my
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