TOURISM - A yearly event for Islamic tourism

THE success of the International Islamic Tourism Conference and Travel Mart (ITCM) 2010, has led the Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) of Malaysia, one of the organisers of the event, to continue to hold it as an annual event. "The ITC is committed and is prepared to provide this platform for all interested parties to participate on an annual basis, and we hope to make the ITCM the conduit for sustainable growth and development of Muslim or 'halal-friendly' travel," said Professor Dato Dr Abdul Kadir, professor of tourism management at Universiti Utara Malaysia, and a board member of the ITC, in his closing remarks.

In an exclusive interview with The Brunei Times, Professor Dato Dr Abdul said that the ITCM was aimed to become a platform, or meeting place, for people to come to "a specific venue, to talk about a theme of interest to everybody", and that was based on the response from those participating on the last day of the forum. He added that he foresees that the ITCM will become an annual event, "barring logistic problems".

"Sometimes bureaucracy and logistics can be a problem, but the spirit of the group I have seen today (Friday), is that they want to come back again, and it does not necessarily have to be here, it can be in Brunei or any other country," he said. In his closing remarks, he told the floor that they "have now come to the end of the inaugural ITCM, and by harvesting the potentials of intra-regional Islamic travel and tourism", the participants have spent two days deliberating important issues pertaining to Islamic or "halal-friendly tourism".

Some of the challenges that many in the industry have to face include keeping up with the best marketing techniques on traditional and new media, coming up with Islamic packages to entice Muslim and non-Muslim tourists and also ideas for countries to work together to help each other promote intra-regional travel.

"We have discussed how we can leverage on the growing interest of tourists, and the challenges facing us in tapping the Islamic tourism potentials, we have had active participation from the floor and time has come for us to make a commitment for the sustainability of this kind of dialogue to continue in the future," said Professor Dato Dr Abdul. The ITCM 2010 was held in the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and was organised by the Islamic Tourism Centre, and endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism of Malaysia and its marketing arm, Tourism Malaysia. In his closing speech, the ITC board member thanked the moderators, participants, speakers, panelists and sponsors for their cooperation to make the event a success.

The conference saw the participation of 12 countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Brunei Darussalam, China, India, Thailand, Singapore and South Africa. While the conference part of the ITCM 2010 ended yesterday, the Travel Mart of the entire programme will still be ongoing till Sunday and is open to the public. The Brunei Times

Source : http://www.bt.com.bn/business-national/2010/10/30/yearly-event-islamic-tourism - Oct 30, 2010