By Arno Maierbrugger/Gulf Times Correspondent/Bangkok


Once again, Malaysia leads the world’s most attractive holiday destination ranking for Muslims as per the “Global Muslim Travel Index 2015”released this week by Crescentrating, a Singapore-based company focusing on halal-friendly travel, and credit card giant MasterCard. The country remains on top of the yearly list for the fifth time in a row. The study looks at in-depth data covering 100 destination countries, creating an overall index based on criteria that have to do with attentiveness to the needs of Muslim travellers, including the presence and accessibility of halal restaurants with food prepared to Islamic standards, the provision of prayer rooms at airports, shopping malls and hotels and a number of other variables. From these findings, the study derives a score in which Muslim-majority Malaysia came on top with 83.8 points, followed by Turkey (73.8), the UAE (72.1), Saudi Arabia (71.3), Qatar (68.2) and Indonesia (67.5).
“For Muslim travellers, Malaysia still remains the top choice simply because it is a great holiday destination for families while offering a very Muslim-friendly environment,” said Crescentrating CEO Fazal Bahardeen. He said that 5.9mn Muslim travellers visited Malaysia in 2014, up from 5.7mn in 2013. In total arrival numbers, Saudi Arabia saw the highest number of Muslim visitors in 2014 with 10.2mn, followed by Turkey with 8.1mn.
The study itself, Bahardeen added, “is not only the most in-depth research that we have undertaken so far on the fast-growing Muslim travel market, but has provided all stakeholders with some invaluable insight into how the halal-friendly tourism sector is growing and developing from a global perspective.” He said that the ranking will from now on be updated quarterly instead of annually. The study states that in 2014, the global halal travel market was worth a whopping $145bn, with 108mn Muslim travellers representing 10% of the entire global travel revenue. The report also sees “a recent huge shift towards more destinations targeting the halal travel sector like Japan and Taiwan.” This trend is expected to continue, with the market value of the sector forecast to grow to $200bn and 150mn Muslim travellers by 2020, making 11% of the entire market by then.
“The typical Muslim consumer is now younger, educated and with a larger disposable income which has precipitated an increased propensity to travel. This means travel and hospitality, and its various sub-sectors, is now one of the biggest markets within the Muslim consumer space,” the report says.
The study also distinguishes between Muslim and non-Muslim countries, i.e. between members on non-members of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The non-Muslim country list is topped by Singapore, followed by Thailand, UK, South Africa and France. Taiwan and Japan also got high ratings, placing 10 and 11th, respectively. Singapore is said to have “some of the best halal food environments”, while Thailand, Japan and Taiwan have undertaken “big efforts” to satisfy the needs of Muslim travellers, the study found.
The report naturally also determines less Muslim-friendly destinations. The last place on the 100-country list is occupied by Costa Rica, behind Colombia, Andorra, Dominican Republic and Uruguay. Nations not particularly keen on catering to Muslim travellers’ needs are mostly in Latin and Central American and in the Caribbean, as well as some in Eastern Europe. The US and Canada come in the mid-field.


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