Dubai: Jumeirah Mosque, a top tourist attraction in Dubai, has won an award from a popular travel website in recognition of the large number of people who visited it and expressed their appreciation of their experience there.
The mosque visit programme, which is run by Shaikh Mohammad Centre for Cultural Understanding, recently received a TripAdvisor certificate of Excellence Award.
Winning the certificate “is true honour for Latifa and the entire team at Jumeirah Mosque,” said Nasif Kayed, Managing Director of the SMCCU, which runs the programme. He was referring to Latifa Flook, who has been a leader of the team responsible for handling the visits to the mosque for eight years.
Also, ‘we would like to thank all of our past visitors who took the time to complete a review on TripAdvisor,” added Kayed.
It is estimated that nearly 400,000 tourists have visited Jumeirah mosque in the past 15 years.
“With the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence based on visitor reviews, the accolade is a remarkable vote of confidence to our ‘Open doors. Open minds’ group of programmes, which are held at the Jumeirah Mosque as well as in our wind tower house in the Al Fahidi Historic District of Dubai,” noted Kayed, who himself is an articulate speaker and can give quick witted responses to questions from visitors during the arranged visits.
Speaking to Gulf News, Flook expressed her happiness for the recognition.
“It makes me feel that the programme that we have, that everybody who comes benefits from this programme. We are obviously doing something that is needed and something that, you know, people really really appreciate. It means a lot to us,” Flook said.
Guided visits
Jumeirah Mosque guided visits are arranged every morning except Fridays. The visit would last for nearly 75 minutes, and incudes a brief history about the mosque and a brief explanation about the five pillars of Islam.
A question and answer session follows were the guests are given the chance to ask about anything they have in mind.
Interestingly, the common top question is not related to the place or Islam. It is about the reason why the men wear a white candoura and the women wear the black abaya.
“Many are surprised to find out that it is part of the culture and it is the best when you live here,” Latifa added in reference to the benefits of wearing white long fluffy clothes in hot weather.
“The success of the Jumeirah Mosque in this year’s Certificate of Excellence awards is a great testament to what this attraction has to offer its visitors,” said Marc Charron, President of TripAdvisor for Business, in a statement emailed to Gulf News.
“The Certificate of Excellence award gives top performing establishments around the world the recognition they deserve, based on feedback from those who matter most – their customers,” added Charron, who is based in London.
Certificate of Excellence winners were selected using a proprietary algorithm. This takes into account reviews, ratings and volume and recency of reviews.
Businesses must also maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five. A business’ tenure and popularity ranking are also factored into the algorithm.
