News

Malaysia Ranked Top Muslim-Friendly Travel Country – Nancy

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Malaysia has been named the best country in four out of six sectors in the State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) Report 2020/21, including as the top-ranked country in the Muslim-Friendly Travel (MFT) sector, said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.

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

Malaysia was ranked second and fourth in the Media & Recreation and Modest Fashion sectors respectively, she said.

“Realising the huge potential of Islamic tourism under the concept of MFT, Malaysia through MOTAC (Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture) and its agency ITC (Islamic Tourism Centre) will continue to increase the effort to gain more market shares through infrastructure and facilities, training, capacity building, and standards and certification as well as promotion by the tourism promotion boards,” she said in a statement today.

In the MFT category, the Malaysian government ranked highest in two out of four benchmark dimensions, namely in governance which refers to regulations related to the tourism industry and awareness in terms of media coverage and stakeholder training.

Nancy said MOTAC and ITC had focused on stakeholder training during the downtime generated from the COVID-19 pandemic, which was highlighted in the SGIE report.

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

In the other two benchmark dimensions, Malaysia was placed second in Financial Support for inbound tourism spend and third in Social Dimension, which refers to the sector’s impact on employment.

In the Muslim-Friendly Travel sector, 200.3 million Muslim travellers contributed US$194 billion (RM790 billion) in travel spend in 2019, attesting to its enormous potential. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has crippled growth in this sector, which is only expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels by 2023.

The SGIE offers a comprehensive picture of countries that are currently best positioned to address the multi-trillion dollar global halal economic opportunity.

A total of 81 countries comprising Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries and non-OIC countries with a prominent halal industry presence were covered in the SGIE Report.

Sources: BERNAMA

Adib Mohd

Recent Posts

The First 72 Hours After a Stroke, Crucial for Recovery and Saving Lives

Did you know that you could lose approximately 1.9 million neurons after a stroke hit?… Read More

14 hours ago

Huawei ICT Academy Will Level Up Your Digital Mastery

Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Huawei Malaysia) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Johor are collaborating… Read More

14 hours ago

Malaysia Faces Rising Dementia Care Burden as Families Struggle Alone

Malaysia Faces Rising Dementia Care Burden as Families Struggle Alone Malaysia’s rapidly aging population is… Read More

20 hours ago

From Oval Office to Silver Screen: Trump Cameo Legacy You Can Never Recreate

From Oval Office to Silver Screen: Trump Cameo Legacy You Can Never Recreate Imagine you… Read More

21 hours ago

Step In, Stand Out, Converse Introduces Malaysia’s All Star Class of 2026

Are you ready to meet your new classmates? Converse Malaysia will bring you into a… Read More

2 days ago

IKEA Malaysia Crowns Three Ultimate Cook-Off Champions

The heat was on and creativity was unleashed. On 4 and 5 October 2025, over… Read More

2 days ago

This website uses cookies.