The Potential of Arabic as a Tourism Language in Malaysia

Hashim Bin Mat Zin; Tengku Ghani Tengku Jusoh; Zulkarnain Mohamed; Roslan Abdul Rahman; Noorsafuan Che Noh

Authors

Hashim Bin Mat Zin Faculty of Islamic Studies Department of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization National University of Malaysia
Tengku Ghani Tengku Jusoh Faculty of Islamic Studies Department of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization National University of Malaysia
Zulkarnain Mohamed Faculty of Islamic Studies Department of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization National University of Malaysia
Roslan Abdul Rahman Faculty of Islamic Studies Department of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization National University of Malaysia
Noorsafuan Che Noh Faculty of Islamic Studies Department of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization National University of Malaysia

Abstract

Use of Arabic language is seen as to play its role in Malaysian tourism industry. It is common that Arabic is the language of communication for Arab tourists with tourism agents and members of the public such as taxi drivers, traders, security officers and so on. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential of Arabic language in Malaysian tourism industry. This study used both quantitative and qualitative using questionnaire and interview instruments. As for the quantitave data, the sampling technique involves 10 tourists whereas for the qualitative data an officer from the Islamic Tourism Center was interviewed. It was found in this study that the potential of Arabic language in the tourism industry was most encouraging. The number of the Arab tourists coming to visit is seen to be increasing if related information thas was needed by the tourists can be introduced in Arabic such as in the form of brochurers and signboards as well as television programmes. Besides, Arabic language was expected to be able to create job oppotunities for the local people and subsequently to be able to increase the national economy.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p490