Mosque Tourism Certification in Waqf Management: A Model by Ukhwah Samara

This study proposes a model of a mosque tour guides certification programme to promote religious tourism and waqf management as developed by Ukhwah Samara, a non-profit organisation. The certification programme would begin with training to up-grade the knowledge of existing registered tour guides and include basic understanding of Islamic history and civilisation. A practical training and assessments for the certification would be conducted in participating mosques following the completion of the initial training. Ukhwah Samara together with four other bodies, namely, the respective mosques, State Islamic Religious Council, Sabah Tourist Guides Association (STGA) and World Federation of Tourist Guide Association (WFTGA), would be involved in this international certification process. In addition to generating waqf revenues for the mosques, the outcome of the proposed training model is to educate tourists in the unique social and cultural diversity of local ethnic communities. The study contributes to current literature, which is limited, on religious tourism and waqf management in Malaysia, and provides recommendations to improve the financial sustainability of mosques through religious tourism certification.