Islam and Online Imagery on Malaysian Tourist Destination Websites

In December 1996, TIME magazine published an article titled ‘‘Finding God on the Web,’’ which projected how the Internet would shape information seeking on faith and religion. A decade later, the Web has become a popular tool for gathering religious information as well as information and imagery related to religious travel. Yet there is little research on religious destination imagery online. Imagery—positive or negative, pictographic or narrative—influences the selection of tourism destinations. This study explored online Muslim images in Malaysia via interviews and content analyses of pictures and text on tourism destination websites’ homepages. The results reveal minimal portrayal of Muslim images by Malaysian tourism destination organizations. This study adds to the small body of research, especially in Muslim countries, on online religious imagery and suggests avenues for tourism operators in Malaysia and elsewhere to improve their online image with both Muslim and non-Muslim travelers.