‘Sekolah pondok’ to be made tourist attractions

Sekolah pondok, or religious schools, can strengthen the country’s image in the Islamic tourism market, says the government.

GEORGE TOWN: The government plans to make sekolah pondok, or religious schools, tourist spots to strengthen the country’s image in the Islamic tourism market.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi said a study is being carried out to select the schools, which are usually with boarding facilities, to be turned into a tourism icon.

He said the selected schools should also consider letting out homes or rooms for visitors to stay as part of an attractive Islamic tourism product.

Mohamaddin said mosques would be also aggressively promoted as tourist destinations.

He said five mosques, including Masjid Negara in Kuala Lumpur, Masjid Putra in Putrajaya and Masjid Selat Melaka in Melaka, were already well-known among tourists and have been named among TripAdvisor’s Top 10 best landmarks in Malaysia.

Mohamaddin said this in a speech at the National Imams Conference 2019 at a hotel here today, read out by Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) director-general Abdul Khani Daud.

Weighing in, Khani also proposed that schools open their doors for foreign exchange students as part of their long-term plan to boost their finances.

On mosques as tourist attractions, he said there was plenty of potential for that sector  as there were thousands of mosques in the country.

He said uniformed guidelines for mosques to receive tourists were being developed by the ITC and the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to encourage more such religious houses to open their doors to non-Muslims. - FMT