Malaysia has maintained its position as the top travel destination for the world’s Muslims. The country once again took the top spot in the newly released MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2022. The news comes amid a full recovery in the Malaysian tourism market. Malaysia’s Tourism Minister Nancy Shukri said about 1 million travellers had arrived in the country since the border reopened on April 1, noting that the figure meant the country had reached its “Malaysian real”. half of the Asia 2022” campaign goal. In the rest of the time, 2 million tourists visited…
Malaysia has maintained its position as the top travel destination for the world’s Muslims.Newly released, the first in the country MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2022.
The news comes amid a full recovery in the Malaysian tourism market. Malaysia’s Tourism Minister Nancy Shukri said about 1 million travellers had arrived in the country since the border reopened on April 1, noting that the figure meant the country had reached its “Malaysian real”. half of the Asia 2022” campaign goal. Visitor numbers for the remainder of the year will reach 2 million.
No. 1 since 2015
In the halal tourism rankings, Malaysia has been at the top since the index was launched in 2015. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia tied for second place this year. GMTI monitors the overall performance of the Muslim travel market.
“We remain committed to promoting Muslim-friendly tourism and hospitality locally and globally,” Shukri said.
According to her, Islamic tourism “reflects the value of sustainable tourism” and “promotes sustainable development in many forms, from economic, social and spiritual sustainability to environmental, cultural and heritage sustainability.”
In Malaysia, the Muslim tourist market contributed 16.72 billion ringgit ($3.81 billion) in spending to 5.3 million international tourists in 2019.
Halal travel saw strong growth ahead of pandemic
Mastercard and CrescentRating report that before the pandemic, the Muslim tourist market was showing strong growth, from 108 million Muslim tourists in 2013 to 160 million in 2019.
The market is expected to pick up again as global borders reopen, with 230 million Muslims expected to travel by 2028, according to the latest GMTI report.
However, CrescentRating founder and CEO Fazal Bahardeen warned in the foreword to the report that several global events are currently taking place that could derail the momentum.
fragile recovery
“This recovery process is fragile and could be interrupted by the ongoing war in Ukraine, rising fuel prices and other health threats such as emerging monkeypox or Covid-19 variants,” he said.
However, he noted that overall, he remains optimistic about the global growth of Muslim tourism.
This growth was primarily driven by Gen Z, millennials and women, who are seen as “the most influential and fastest growing segment of the Muslim population”, with women in particular representing the fastest growing segment of the Muslim travel market One, Bahadin added.
