MALAYSIA REMAINS TOP MUSLIM TRAVEL MARKET
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has retained its position as the foremost destination in the global Muslim travel market, according to the Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2018.
The index, which covers 130 destinations, saw Malaysia retaining the premier spot for the eighth consecutive year, while Indonesia built on its year-on-year growth by moving up to joint second with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the overall rankings.
The Index also reveals that a number of non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations in Asia moved up the rankings a result of efforts to adapt their services to cater for and attract the Muslim travel market.
“We are now starting to see the impact of investment and commitment by destinations across the world into the Muslim travel market, which is reaping rewards including a real shift in the rankings.
“The concerted efforts of destinations such as Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan using data and insights from the previous GMTI reports have to be commended as they are now closing the gap,” said CrescentRating & HalalTrip chief executive officer Fazal Bahardeen in a statement yesterday.
Singapore retained its pole position for the non-OIC destination markets, ahead of Thailand and the United Kingdom, while Japan and Taiwan surged into the top five for the first time since the GMTI was released.
Malaysia scored 80.6 in the index, followed by the UAE and Indonesia at 72.8.
Singapore was the highestscoring non-OIC destination at 66.2.
The GMTI 2018 also confirmed the Muslim travel market was on course to continue its fast-paced growth to reach US$220 billion (RM854 billion) in 2020.
It is expected to grow a further US$80 billion to hit US$300 billion by 2026.