(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The UAE is the third most preferred global destination in the fast-growing Muslim travel market, a survey revealed on Wednesday.
The country was also the highest ranked in the Middle East in a ranking of choice holiday destinations for Muslim travellers, said a report by payment giant MasterCard and Islamic travel specialist CrescentRating.
The study also revealed that in 2014, this segment was worth $145 billion with 108 million Muslim travellers representing 10 per cent of the entire travel economy. The UAE saw 2.9 million Muslim visitors in that period which accounts for 27 per cent of the total arrivals to the Gulf destination.
The Muslim travel market is forecasted to grow to 150 million visitors by 2020 which accounts for 11 per cent of the entire travel segment with a value projected to grow to $200 billion.
Scores were tabulated into a Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) in which Muslim-majority Malaysia came on top with a score of 83.8, followed by Turkey (73.8), UAE (72.1), Saudi Arabia (71.3), Qatar (68.2) and Indonesia (67.5).
The GMTI looks at in-depth data covering 100 destinations, creating an overall index, based on a number of criteria.
The study evaluates countries in terms of their attentiveness to the needs of Muslim travellers, including the presence and accessibility of halal restaurants with food prepared to Islamic standards, and the provision of prayer rooms at airports, shopping malls and hotels.
Singapore came first for the non-OIC destinations, which also saw Thailand, UK, South Africa and France make the top five.
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 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 also provided all stakeholders with some invaluable insight into how the halal-friendly tourism sector is growing and developing from a global perspective," Bahardeen added.
Raghu Malhotra, division president, Middle East and North Africa, MasterCard, said: "Partnering with CrescentRating to develop the Global Muslim Travel Index has helped us better understand what travellers look for when exploring different destinations. We hope that this Index will help our partners tailor products and services to the needs of this customer segment. The ranking will also help our consumers make more informed decisions."
Saudi Arabia saw the highest number of Muslim arrivals into the country in 2014 with 10.2 million followed by Turkey at 8.1 million.
The GMTI 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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