Exploring the digitalisation adoption and community empowerment toward positioning and managing mosque tourism in Malaysia / Nazatul Aqilah Sutrisno

The unique architectures of mosques in Malaysia are bound to attract global tourists and contribute to the glory of Islamic tourism. However, several management issues have affected the development of mosques as a tourism attraction. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effects of digitalisation adoption and community empowerment on the positioning and management of mosque tourism in Malaysia. This study is qualitative in nature (multi-case study) and employs the method of triangulation (content analysis, interviews, and observations). The investigation involves sixteen mosques including twenty informants as the sample population. The Atlast.Ti22 software is utilized to analyse the collected data. For Research Question 1, three types of mosque tourism are found in Malaysia namely government, semi-government, and private, all of which are equipped with the necessary facilities and of which management has been upgraded to industry standards. For Research Question 2, almost all the mosques are found to have transitioned to digital management systems which are believed to offer a better development impact in terms of social media, digital infrastructure, cashless payment, application, and online platform. Finally, for Research Question 3, community empowerment is identified as one of the alternatives that can improve the positioning strategy and management of mosques, and that the existence of volunteerism and collaboration can help boost the effectiveness of the tourism industry in accordance with SDGs 9, 11, and 16. The findings of this study are significant to the literature, theory, methodology, practice and industry in enhancing, modernising, positioning, and managing mosque tourism in Malaysia.