Chance for Malaysia to capitalise on rise of Islamic tourism: Mas Ermieyati

KUALA LUMPUR: Islamic tourism has huge potential and is the biggest tourism growth sector in the world, said Deputy Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin.
She said there is big potential in Malaysia to attract such tourists and the country is well poised as it has all the necessary ingredients.
"A wide variety of halal food from local to western, a multicultural country where all races live and work together peacefully as well as easy access to prayer facilities," she said, adding that this is a huge attraction to Muslims tourists.
She pointed out that more and more Muslims are finding it difficult to travel to western countries and Malaysia should take advantage of this.
Mas Ermieyati said Muslims living in the west find it difficult to get halal food when out on tours, if they visit Malaysia, they can walk out anywhere and get halal food.
She added that even getting a halal burger at McDonald's is a big thing for these tourists.
"An average of 5.5 million Muslims tourists visit the country yearly and those from the Middle East have a huge spending power.
"Tourists from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Oman and Qatar spend about RM6,000 to RM10,000 per person during their stay in the country," Mas Ermieyati told reporters after launching the inaugural World Islamic Tourism Conference here today.
She welcomed participants from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines and Uzbekistan to the conference.
She said Malaysia is more than willing to share its expertise and knowledge about Islamic tourism with all those present at the conference.