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Ashraf AboArafe
Actually, it looks so surprising that the pioneer of the Islamic cruise experience in the world, IslamiCruise International Sdn Bhd (IslamiCruise International), is confident to bring over 6,000 tourists into Malaysia through IslamiCruise Malaysia-Saudia come January 2026.
This latest two-way voyage between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia is the result of a historic collaboration between IslamiCruise and Aroya Cruises, a state-owned Saudi Arabian cruise company. The founder of IslamiCruise International, Suhaimi Abd Ghafer, expects that over 70 percent of the 6,000 tourists targeted would be foreign tourists, in line with their desire to help attract more tourists to Malaysia in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2026.
“As a player in the Malaysian and global Islamic tourism industry, we are confident that our uniqueness and speciality will be able to market Malaysia as a Muslim-friendly tourism destination to tourists from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, not to mention those from Europe and South East Asia,” he elaborated during the launch of IslamiCruise Malaysia-Saudia today.
The launch ceremony saw Deputy Prime Minister YAB Dato’ Sri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi present to launch this momentous milestone between the Saudi Arabian and Malaysian governments. This collaboration, which was signed back in 11 August 2024, is IslamiCruise’s fifth strategic partnership since it blazed the Islamic tourism industry with its Islamic cruise concept 10 years ago. Since then, IslamiCruise has taken over 10,000 travellers over 52 series of cruise voyages.