(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar has been named fifth in the Global Muslim Travel Index, which is said to be the "most comprehensive" research that has been released on the sector.
The "MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2015" saw Qatar come fifth on the list, behind Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and Malaysia who took the top spot for the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) destinations. It was one of five destinations in the top 10 from the Middle East region.
In 2014, Qatar saw 348,000 Muslim arrivals into the country which accounts for 27% of the total arrivals.
Singapore came first for the non-OIC destinations, which also saw Thailand, the UK, South Africa and France make the top five.
The GMTI looks at in-depth data covering 100 destinations, creating an overall index, based on a number of criteria. This is the first time such thorough insights have been provided into one of the fastest-growing tourism sectors in the world today.
It will provide travellers, governments, travel services and investors' comprehensive benchmarks across a number of important criteria, enabling them to track the health and growth of this travel segment.
The study also revealed that in 2014, this segment was worth $145bn with 108mn Muslim travellers representing 10% of the entire travel economy.
The Muslim travel market is forecasted to grow to 150mn visitors by 2020 and 11% of the entire segment with a value projected to grow to $200bn.
"The MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index has today set a real precedent for the tourism industry," said Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating & HalalTrip.
"Not only is it 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."
"We are pleased to partner with CrescentRating to develop the Global Muslim Travel Index as we see it as an extension of our efforts in giving
consumers ease of mind when travelling through our seamless payment solutions.
Travel continues to be a core passion for consumers and we are confident the GMTI will prove to be a trusted resource for this important, fast-growing traveller segment," said Matthew Driver, president, Southeast Asia, MasterCard.
Not surprisingly, Saudi Arabia saw the highest number of Muslim arrivals into the country in 2014 with 10.2mn followed by Turkey at 7.6mn.
All 100 destinations in the GMTI were scored against a backdrop of criteria which included suitability as a family holiday destination, the level of services and facilities it provides, accommodation options, marketing initiatives as well as visitor arrivals. Each criterion was then weighted to make up the overall index score.
Malaysia scored an Index score of 83.8, followed by Turkey at 73.8 while Qatar had a GMTI of 68.2.
GMTI40, which will be updated quarterly around the year, will track the average score of the top 20 OIC and non-OIC destinations and will form the key index to monitor the performance of the Muslim travel segment.
The overall average score for 40 destinations (GMTI40) currently stands at 56, while the overall average GMTI score for the complete 100 destinations is at 43.8.
From a regional perspective, Asia Pacific destinations lead with an average GMTI score of 54.
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