KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has once again topped the list of best Muslim-friendly holiday destinations for Muslim travellers, according to the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2021.
The GMTI 2021 report stated that although the pandemic had ravaged the tourism sector, some destinations were ready to be activated in anticipation of borders reopening.
It said these destinations had a strong foundation in Muslim-friendly facilities and services, and had continued their stakeholder awareness, capacity building and destination marketing to the Muslim outbound markets even during the pandemic.
"Malaysia remained the top-ranked destination in the GMTI 2021 as it had been since the launch of the index in 2015," Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) said in a statement today.
Tourism Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the achievement was made of Malaysia's continued and steadfast commitment towards developing the Muslim-friendly travel, a model that was becoming more and more significant in the global market.
"Halal in travel is an essential for Muslim travellers and is part and parcel of Islamic Tourism. Malaysia, being a Muslim majority nation, has many Halal offerings while featuring many tourism packages that are compliant with Islamic principles.
"These are the foundation of a successful Islamic Tourism model destination," Nancy said in her keynote address at the inaugural Halal in Travel Global Summit 2021.
Nancy said it was important that Malaysia leveraged on the achievement to prepare for the reopening of travel and the recovery of Muslim tourists to the country.
She said the ministry, via its agency ITC, would continue developing better understanding of the post-Covid-19 requirements of the Muslim tourist market, and enhancing the facilities, products, and services.
"In the field of research, ITC has shared knowledge through its symposiums, and encouraged innovative ideas and expanded the potential of the Muslim-friendly Tourism and Hospitality space through a focus on research. I urge industry players to learn and apply this knowledge to serve the needs of the market better," she said.
Nancy said ITC's contribution was crucial to link Malaysia's culture, arts, heritage and other commercial attractions with the Islamic tourism and Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality concept.
She said the development of the Muslim-friendly tour guide course for licenced tour guides and its advocacy for Malaysia's cuisines and heritage attractions as a major draw to attract Muslim tourists were some of the efforts made by ITC to improve the product and service offerings of Malaysia to Muslim tourists.
"Initiatives such as ITC's Muslim-friendly Accommodation Recogntion (MFAR) gives assurance to Muslim hotel guests. This effort enables Muslim tourists to easily identify accommodations that cater to their needs such as availability of Halal food and provision of prayer facilities.
"It also serves as a marketing and branding tool for the hotels to give assurance to their Muslim clientele," she added.