Malaysia was ranked as a top Muslim-friendly travel country, Minister says

KUALA LUMPUR: In the State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) Study 2020/21, Malaysia was declared the best country in four out of six sectors, including as the top country in the Muslim Friendly Travel (MFT) market, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Nancy Shukri said.

Malaysia also emerged top in the Halal Food, Islamic Finance, and Pharmaceutical & Cosmetics sectors, she said, according to a study released recently by the international strategy research and advisory firm DinarStandard.

In the Media & Leisure and Modest Fashion markets, respectively, Malaysia ranked second and fourth, she said.

“Realizing the enormous potential of Islamic tourism under the MFT concept, Malaysia will continue to increase efforts through Motac (Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture) and its ITC (Islamic Tourism Centre) agency to gain more market share through infrastructure and facilities, training, capacity building, standards and certification, as well as promotion by tourism promotion boards,”

Malaysia ranked highest in two of the four benchmark dimensions, namely governance, which refers to tourism industry regulations and media coverage and stakeholder training awareness.

During the downtime created from the Covid-19 pandemic, which was highlighted in the SGIE report, Nancy said Motac and ITC had concentrated on stakeholder training.

“During the crisis, ITC offered a series of free Muslim-friendly online tourism-related training sessions covering topics such as halal certification, Muslim travelers’ needs, and Islamic branding and marketing,” she said.

Malaysia was ranked second in the Financial Support for inbound tourism spending in the other two benchmark dimensions, and third in the Social Dimension, which refers to the job impact of the industry.

200.3 million Muslim travelers contributed US$194 billion (RM790 billion) to travel spending in the Muslim-Friendly Travel market in 2019, attesting to its immense potential. However, growth in this industry, which is only expected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels by 2023, has been crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic.