INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS IN FOSTERING MOSQUE TOURISM IN ATTRACTING TOURISTS TO VISIT MALAYSIA

This paper attempted to appraise the role of stakeholders in encouraging mosque tourism in a tourism destination. As a niche area in Islamic tourism industry, mosque tourism has gained a lot of attention from the tourists in the past few years. Since mosque tourism popularity is expanding and growing, the challenges face by the stakeholders are becoming more complicated due to rapid changes in the tourism industry itself along with competitive mosque tourism destinations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the role of stakeholders in fostering mosque tourism in attracting tourist to visit Malaysia. Additionally, this study also seeks to identify the salient factors that attracts tourists to visit the mosque in Malaysia from the perspectives of the industry players including travel agencies, hoteliers and local authorities who are the backbone of the hospitality and tourism sector in Malaysia. By employing qualitative approach of thematic analysis, the paper went on to analyse the issues and concepts of the forthcoming study through a number of literatures of various disciplines. The result of this study has shown that cultural and educational significance, architectural marvel, historical value, religious factor, word of mouth, marketing and promotion plays significant role in influencing tourists to visit mosque in Malaysia. In regard to the role of stakeholders, it was discovered that mosque management and infrastructure development, collaborative efforts, educational awareness, and cultural preservation and community engagement are the four categories that was vital in fostering mosque tourism in Malaysia. Hence, future research may become an important platform for various hospitality and tourism stakeholders in developing the strategies and marketing tools to increase tourist’s participation in mosque tourism in Malaysia. The study will also be relevant to local authorities to design effective mechanism to promote Malaysian mosque tourism industry as another dimension of attraction to visit Malaysia.