M’sia well-positioned to gain from Islamic economy and Muslim-friendly travel
KUCHING: Malaysia has emerged as the number one nation that best-supports the multi-trillion dollar global Islamic economy, DinarStandard revealed in its State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) Report 2022.
The report offers a comprehensive look into the bestperforming countries to address the growing Islamic economy opportunity.
Malaysia continues to remain in the top spot in the overall rankings for the ninth consecutive year. It is followed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia.
The report’s Global Islamic Economy Indicator (GIEI) Score ranks Malaysia in the top spot in four out of six sectors, namely Muslim-friendly travel, Islamic finance, Halal food as well as media and recreation.
Malaysia was placed second and ninth in the pharma and cosmetics and modest fashion respectively.
In terms of Muslim-friendly travel, Malaysia was included in the top five Muslim travel destination countries, alongside Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran.
Malaysia’s strengths in this area were a ributed to ease of travel and public awareness.
In the report, Malaysia topped two of the five government benchmark dimensions, specifically in governance that focuses on travel rules and regulations, and awareness, referring to media coverage and stakeholder training.
Other key takeaways from the report shed light on the potential growth of Muslim travel.
The Muslim-friendly travel sector is slowly recovering, thanks to the global vaccination rollouts. As the world opens up again to tourism, Muslim-friendly resorts, hotels, and restaurants are slated for major growth in the years ahead.
A er the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Muslim spend on travel increased by 75.9 per cent in 2021 to reach US$102 billion and is forecast to grow to US$189 billion by 2025.
In 2021, Muslims across the globe spent an approximate US$2 trillion in 2021 on travel, food, pharmaceutica, cosmetics, fashion, media and recreation sectors.
This number reflects an 8.9 per cent year-on-year growth from 2020 with Islamic finance assets estimated to have grown by 7.8 per cent at US$3.6 trillion in 2021 from the preceding year.
The top five outbound Muslim source markets in 2021 were Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Russia.
Sustainability is a key focus area in tourism recovery. The pandemic’s impacts on tourism have made governments and businesses become more aware of the importance of environmental and community care.
Moving forward, tourism industry players can expect demand for personalised travel services and the dependency on travel agencies to grow to help travellers navigate their post-pandemic journey and the diverse travel requirements.
The rapid development of travel technology is anticipated to shape the future of travel operations and the travel experience. Fintech, AI and blockchain technology will be used to develop more customised travel experiences and create more efficient ways to travel.
“Alhamdulillah, Malaysia is on the right track in preparing the tourism industry players for the burgeoning Muslim tourist market,” said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Dato Sri Hajah Nancy Shukri.
“During the pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, through its agency, Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC), has ramped up efforts to train and upskill tourism industry stakeholders to understand and cater to this market with its unique faith-based needs.”