MUSLIM FRIENDLY TOUR PACKAGES BASED ON PESANTREN IN LOMBOK FOR MALAYSIAN MARKET

Muslim-Friendly tourism has become a global trend and is one of the factors driving the economy and contributes to the growth of tourism industry. The concept of Muslim-Friendly tourism has also garnered considerable interest in recent years, especially in countries with a Muslim majority, such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The island of Lombok is one of Indonesia’s major Muslim-Friendly destinations. The island is famous for its beautiful landscapes, underwater, unique culture, and other destination attributes which attract both domestic and international visitors.Lombok, is also home to numerous pesantren that focus on teaching Islamic principles alongside general knowledge, contributing significantly to the religious and social development of the region.Thus, the study aimed to explore Muslim-Friendly tourism based on pesantren for Malaysian tourists in Lombok and to analyse the feasibility of Pesantren tour as a place of attraction and inclusive of the Muslim-Friendly Tour Packages. A qualitative method was adopted where the data is collected through document research and Semi-structured interviews of representatives of travel agents and 3 founders of selected Pesantren in Lombok. The document research is to identify the information on Muslim-Friendly tourism industries, its packages and services provided for tourists especially in Indonesia. The collected data were analysed using content and thematic analysis. The finding showed that Muslim-Friendly tourism tour Package based on Pesantren includes four important criteria which may attract Muslim Malaysian Tourists to Lombok. The criteria cover the product, services and Management, education activities offered, culture and achitecture values and cuisine delight. Charity experience attracted most Malaysians to visit Pesantren. Thus, the study recommended for the tourism agencies and Indonesian authority to boost the pesantren operators’ awareness on their potentiality to support the future growth of Muslim-Friendly tourism industry in Lombok.