PUTRAJAYA: A total of 42 hotels have been recognised to be under the Muslim-Friendly Accommodation Recognition (MFAR) scheme. The hotels can now bear its latest logo to attract Muslim guests.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the move in recognising hotels to be more Muslim-friendly would strengthen the country's tourism industry.
The MFAR scheme which was implemented by the Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) had labelled 30 hotels this year and 12 hotels last year, with its official MFAR logo today.
"In 2019, Malaysia received a total of 5.33 million Muslims tourists arrivals, an increase of 1.45 per cent from 2018 (5.25 million tourists) generating RM16.72 billion in tourist receipts which is an increase of 0.72 per cent from 2018 (RM16.60 billion).
"The top 10 markets contributing to this performance were Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Thailand, China, and Iran.
"The MFAR scheme is the first of its kind in the world initiated by the government for the hotel industry and has received support from the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners (MAHO), and Malaysia Budget Hotel Association (MyBHA).
"Thank you for your continuous support, it is timely and important for the nation's hotel sector to respond to the increasing demand for Muslim friendly tourism infrastructure," she said during the launch of MFAR official logo at Movenpick Hotel and Convention Centre KLIA here today.
Nancy urged more hoteliers and accommodation providers to apply for the MFAR as it would enable them to generate greater income from the domestic Muslim travellers.
"Since the number of Muslim travellers has increased, hotels must be prepared to offer them assurance and Islamic values in their services.
"More tourism products and packages are being developed to expand and attract new markers including Muslims tourists. The ITC will introduce another scheme to register available and future Islamic Tourism Products and Packages under the ITC Muslim-friendly Tourism Product and Packages Programme (MFTPropack)," she said.
According to the ITC, there are three categories of Muslim-friendly accommodation premises namely, silver, gold and platinum.
Premises that fall under the platinum category, meet the most syariah-compliant requirements such as offering information on locations of mosques, Muslim-friendly tourist attractions and restaurants offering halal food and beverages provided at guest receptions counters, rooms and websites; clear display of qiblat direction as well as providing bidet, prayer mat and Quran in the rooms.
There are also surau with ablution facilities at premises that fall under the platinum category, apart from allocating certain hours for females to use the gymnasium and swimming pools.