Islamic Tourism: Emerging Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities in Tourism Industry of Malaysia

Abstract

The international tourism activity has grown and sustained substantially over the past few decades in terms of both the number of tourists and tourism receipts. While the world tourist arrivals and tourism receipts have been growing substantially over the years, world tourism market has witnessed some important changes in the direction of tourism. The OIC member countries, forming a substantial part of the developing countries, have also benefited from such positive change. There was an increasing trend when it comes to the number of tourists. As a group, the OIC countries attracted 174.7 million tourists in 2013, compared to 156.4 million in 2009. A similar increasing trend was also observed among the non-OIC countries. The non-OIC tourist arrivals increased from 48.8 million in 2009 to 60.7 million in 2013. One of the main driving factors to this positive development among the non-OIC countries is the emergence of Islamic tourism in which all tourism activities, services, facilities, and products are in line with the principles of Islam. The objective of this study is to assess the current trend of Islamic Tourism in Malaysia, in relative to the other Muslim countries from other continents, to identify the issues and challenges in promoting Islamic Tourism in Malaysia, and to assess the internal and external factors that influence the Islamic Tourism in Malaysia by identifying the opportunities and consequently, to propose recommendations which aims to develop the Islamic Tourism industry in Malaysia. Secondary data will be gathered and assessed to draw the strategies towards enhancing the Islamic Tourism of Malaysia in the long run. In conclusion, the growing number of Muslim tourists in Malaysia provides the occasions for evaluating the country’s branding and marketing strategies as a preferred Islamic Tourism destination.