Leading Malaysian hotels, such as the Sunway and Hilton brands, are changing their service offerings to cater to the Muslim tourist sector, which they believe has a lot of potential for tourism recovery post-COVID-19.

44 hotels in the country have engaged in the Islamic Tourism Centre's Muslim-Friendly Accommodation Recognition (MFAR) project .

The campaign promotes resorts and hotels that cater to Muslim guests' religious demands.
Sunway Hotels & Resorts, one of Asia's major international hotel groups and a developer of premium hotels owned by Sunway Group, was one of the first to join the MFAR program last year.

The Sunway Pyramid Hotel, Sunway Clio Hotel, and Sunway Resort in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur have all been designated as Muslim-friendly.

Muslim-friendly tourism, according to Alex Castaldi, Senior General Manager of Hotels at Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, is a developing market area worth engaging into.

“Given this sector's enormous potential, it's critical for the hotel industry to adapt to halal criteria in order to suit the needs of Muslim tourists. When such facilities and services are available, a destination becomes more appealing to Muslim travelers,” he remarked.

“Having this ITC MFAR designation offers the hotel an advantage over the competition and will immediately drive more guests to the property.”

Middle East visitors accounted for 25% of the group's overall hotel business in February across its three MFAR facilities.

Pullman Kuching, a five-star hotel, will also receive ITC's MFAR certification in 2020.

According to Ishak Ibrahim, Cluster General Manager for Pullman Kuching and Pullman Miri Waterfront, the award helped improve the hotel's branding and marketing activities.

“Despite the fact that we already had all of the fundamental services and facilities in place to fulfill the demands of our Muslim guests, we pursued the certification nevertheless in order to use it to attract more Muslim visitors to stay with us and use our services.

The international hotel brand DoubleTree by Hilton Kuala Lumpur (DTHKL), which is operated by Hilton Worldwide, has also jumped on board.

DTHKL Commercial Director Bishoui Khamis remarked, "There are several considerations that guided us in arriving at our choice to seek the MFAR certificate."

“We recognize the Muslim travel industry's potential, and the accreditation is one of many efforts we've made to cater to this market and provide our Muslim guests peace of mind when they stay with us.”

Khamis believes that by providing higher-quality services and goods, the number of Muslim tourists will increase.