Sarawak tourism industry players are keen to leverage the growing Muslim tourist market and are taking steps to meet the market needs through upskilling programmes with Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC), namely the Muslim-Friendly Tour Guides (MFTG) and the Mosque Visit Guide (MosVi) training programmes.
As a result, a total of 27 tourist guides licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) have been recognised as the first batch in Sarawak to be certified as Muslim-Friendly Tourist Guides (MFTG).
The MFTG training programme, introduced in 2017 under the Continuous Tourism Related Education (CTRE), equips guides with the skills and knowledge needed to attend to the Muslim tourist market.
Sarawak’s interest in Islamic Tourism also saw several mosque administrators from the state attend another training programme organised by ITC – the Mosque Visit Guide (MosVi) the training was held to understand and leverage the burgeoning attention to the interesting cultural heritage and historical attractions of mosque tourism from the public and tourists alike.
The MosVi training programme involved briefings by ITC and USIM on various topics including public speaking and communications skills as well as the history and roles of the mosque, etiquette of visiting mosques, and foundation in comparative religion.
With this new batch of Muslim-Friendly Tour Guides and Mosque Visit Guides from Sarawak, as well as the Muslim-Friendly hotels, Sarawak is playing an active role and showing strong potential as a Muslim-Friendly destination.
