Thailand still second most popular destination among Muslim travellers
Thailand has maintained its position as the second most popular destination in the global Muslim travel market, a new study has found.
The MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2016, which covers 130 destinations, saw Thailand come second again behind Singapore on the list of non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations.
The UK, South Africa and Hong Kong make up the top five.
Malaysia kept hold of the top spot for OIC destinations with the UAE moving up to second place while Indonesia jumped two places to take fourth spot.
The study also revealed that in 2015 there were an estimated 117 million Muslim visitor arrivals globally, representing close to 10 per cent of the entire travel market.
This is forecast to grow to 168 million visitors by 2020, equal to 11 per cent of the market segment, with a market value projected to exceed US$200 billion (Bt7 trillion).
Muslim visitors
Asia and Europe were also revealed as the two leading regions in the world for attracting Muslim visitors – accounting for 87 per cent of the entire market.
“One of the biggest trends we are seeing is non-OIC destinations making a concerted effort to attract the Muslim tourist and they now represent over 63 percent of the destinations covered in the GMTI,” said Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating & HalalTrip.
Thailand had an index score of 59.5, placing it in 20th place in the overall combined ranking. Singapore scored 68.4 with UK posting 59. Malaysia had a score of 81.9, placing it in the top position overall.
