DOHA: Qatar ranked fifth in the Global Muslim Travel Index, the most comprehensive research on the sector, released yesterday.
The MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2015 saw Qatar behind Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and Malaysia who took the top spots for Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations. It was one of five destinations in the top 10 from the Middle East.
Singapore came first for the non-OIC destinations, which also saw Thailand, the UK, South Africa and France make the top five. GMTI looks at data covering 100 destinations, creating an overall index, based on criteria. This is the first time such insights have been provided into one of the fastest-growing tourism sectors in the world. It will provide travellers, governments, travel services and investors with benchmarks across criteria to enable them to track the health and growth of this travel segment.
The study also revealed that in 2014, this segment was worth $145bn with 108 million Muslim travellers representing 10 percent of the travel economy. In 2014, Qatar saw 348,000 Muslim arrivals or 27 percent of the total.
The Muslim travel market is forecast to grow to 150 million visitors by 2020 and 11 percent of the segment with a value projected to grow to $200bn.
“GMTI has today set a precedent for the tourism industry,” said Fazal Bahardeen, CEO, CrescentRating and HalalTrip.
“Not only is it the most in-depth research we have undertaken so far on the fast-growing Muslim travel market, but has provided all stakeholders with 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 GMTI 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 GMTI will prove a trusted resource for this fast-growing traveller segment,” said Matthew Driver, President, Southeast Asia, MasterCard.
Saudi Arabia saw the highest number of Muslim arrivals in 2014 with 10.2 million, followed by Turkey (7.6 million).
All 100 destinations in GMTI were scored against a backdrop of criteria, including suitability as a family holiday destination, the level of services and facilities it provides, accommodation options, marketing initiatives and visitor arrivals. Each criterion was weighted to make up the overall index score. Malaysia had a GMTI score of 83.8, followed by Turkey (73.8) and Qatar (68.2).
The Peninsula
