Exploring the Potential of Pondok Institutions as an Islamic Spiritual Tourism Product-The Case of Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potentials of developing Pondok Institutions as an Islamic tourism product. Due to Islamic tourism growth, there is a need to diversify Islamic tourism products to cater to Muslim spiritual tourists' niche market. In order to explore various attributes of Pondok institutions, a series of in-depth interviews with the Pondok operators throughout the country was conducted. The interviews were transcribed and coded into different themes. The research findings revealed four main themes describing Pondok institutions' potentials as an Islamic spiritual tourism product. These were grouped under distinct themes: tranquility of the Pondok environment, curricula and facilities and services. Based on the Pondok attributes identified in this paper, future studies might focus on the pondok visitors' characteristics using quantitative study. Exploring the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the Pondok operations might also be conducted.