The key to tourism and economic rebound may be in this niche market itself. Cleanliness and hygiene, safety and security will be top among travellers’ priorities.
Covid-19 has disrupted the global economy. The tourism industry in many destinations has been impacted due to low travel confidence and border closures.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation has indicated it may take between 30-48 months for travel to return to 2019 levels.
Meanwhile, Crescentrating’s analysis indicates ASEAN may see travel recovery between 2021 and 2022. Nonetheless, healing is subject to how an individual destination strategises its recovery and promotion campaign and the readiness to travel by international tourists.
While a Covid-19 cure is a key factor in increasing travel confidence, I believe that travel-ready destinations will bounce back faster than others post-Covid 19.
It’s essential to grasp this perspective so that destinations will be compelled to seize the opportunities now during this apparent downtime and reap the benefits later once travel re-opens.
Thus, while addressing the pandemic’s impact on the industry, destination managers and tourism industry players need to plan well ahead and have a ready-made mechanism in place ready to launch.
In other words, Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) must be in a state of readiness to act. The Muslim tourist market with a global population of 1.8 billion and inclination for an extended stay and high-value consumption is an untapped market with huge potentials once the world travels again.
Given this, Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) is ready to support industry players to increase their knowledge about this market and prepare them to benefit from this market’s potential, especially post-Covid.
It is expected that once borders open, there will likely be pent-up demand for travel, and the Muslim tourist market is one market that industry players should be mindful of. DMOs worldwide need to consider this market segment when formulating their future strategies now.
The key to tourism and economic rebound may be in this niche market itself. Cleanliness and hygiene, safety and security will be top among travellers’ priorities.
There will also likely be demand for sustainable and restorative travel, all of which are addressed by the foundations of Islamic tourism and Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality services.
Malaysia has recognised this market’s potential as far back as 2009 with the establishment of the ITC under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC).
Since then, we have focused on research, training and capacity building, and certification of Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality services to equip tourism industry players with the relevant knowledge and skills, and help develop the tourism ecosystem that would support this niche tourist market.
We groomed our tour guides to understand Muslim tourists’ needs to be better able to handle this market. We collaborated with mosque administrators to create specific guidelines that would be welcoming to both Muslim and non-Muslim visitors.
In 2020, we successfully introduced the Muslim-friendly Accommodation Recognition (MFAR) programme, an extension of MOTAC’s hotel star rating system. It offers three categories of recognition, i.e. silver, gold and platinum MFAR.
ITC has issued MFAR recognition for more than 40 hotels in Malaysia, and we see that the interest among hoteliers is growing. Through the MFAR programme, we are helping hotels position themselves as a preferred choice for Muslim travellers from all over the world.
They have also begun leveraging this recognition to strengthen their marketing strategy and tap into the Muslim tourist market. This is a good sign for the industry, indicating their awareness for the potential of this market.
We’ve also seen significant interest in terms of research and development in the Islamic tourism sector. ITC has worked with and value academicians and researchers’ contributions in exploring the potential growth areas in Islamic tourism.
Their research unearths the vast potentials in Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality, sustainable destination management, products and services to cater to this niche market, and marketing and branding, to name a few.
The breadth of research ensures that the industry has good references to undertake development and policy formulation in Islamic tourism. During the pandemic, we’ve also seen the take-up rate for training increase.
We’ve conducted specialised training for tourist guides, equipping them with knowledge and information on the Muslim travel and tourism segment, particularly on Muslim visitors’ needs and requirements.
ITC, as a registered training provider with the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), also conducts a series of courses based on Malaysia’s experiences and expertise in the area of Islamic tourism with international participants.
This indicates a strong interest among international destinations to learn about this market and develop it in their own countries. Overall, while we’ve seen tourism industry players struggle during this pandemic, we also see their diligent efforts to survive through this challenging time.
The focus is largely on surviving, recovery, connections, and sustainability, bearing in mind that the industry will rebound eventually — and when that happens, industry players who are proactively preparing themselves for that future will win, Insyallah.
These are areas that ITC can offer through our range of services covering training and capacity building, standards and certification, and consultation on Islamic tourism development.
Our mission is to be an internationally-recognised centre of excellence and reference in Islamic tourism and Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality through strategic research, training, capacity building, standard and certification, and industry development, leveraging destination diversity, an inclusive ecosystem, and technology advancement.
