Malaysia, Singapore best destinations for Muslim travel: GMTI

The Muslim travel segment is expanding, with the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2015 uncovering Malaysia and Singapore as the top destinations in their respective categories for Muslims.

The Mastercard-CrescentRating GMTI looked at in-depth data covering 100 destinations, which were scored against a backdrop of criteria including suitability as a family holiday destination, the level of services and facilities it provides, accommodation options, marketing initiatives as well as visitor arrivals.

Key findings of the study include:

• Malaysia topped the list of 10 Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations, followed by Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Indonesia, Oman, Jordan, Morocco and Brunei;

• Singapore topped the list for non-OIC countries, followed by Thailand, the UK, South Africa, France, Belgium, Hong Kong, the US, Spain and Taiwan;

• Saudi Arabia welcomed the most number of Muslim travellers in 2014 with 10.2 million followed by Turkey, with 8.1 million; and

• In 2014, there were 108 million Muslim travellers – representing 10 per cent of the entire travel economy – who spent US$145 billion, and this is expected to grow to 150 million Muslim travellers (11 per cent of the travel economy) in 2020 spending US$200 billion.

Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating & HalalTrip, said: “CrescentRating has seen a recent huge shift towards more destinations targeting this sector like Japan and Taiwan, and it is a trend we expect to continue.”

-TTG Asia.