Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 10-05-2018
South Africa has been ranked as one of the ten most Muslim-friendly travel destinations among non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, in the annual Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2018.
According to the GMTI report, the ranking is the continued success of the South African tourism industry in attracting a rapidly growing segment of the global travel market that accounts for 131 million arrivals a year.
The Mastercard-CrescentRating GMTI is an insights-driven data study of the Halaal travel market which looks at 130 destinations. It enables destinations, travel services and investors to track the growth of this segment and benchmark their progress in reaching out to Muslim travellers.
The GMTI 2018 confirms that the Muslim travel market is on course to continue its fast-paced growth to reach US$220 billion in 2020 and expected to hit US$300 billion by 2026.
In 2017, there were an estimated 131 million Muslim visitor arrivals globally – up from 121 million in 2016. This is forecasted to grow to 156 million visitors by 2020, representing 10 percent of the travel segment.
Mark Elliott, Division President, Southern Africa, Mastercard says the CrescentRating Index once again confirms that the fast-growing Muslim travel segment is an exciting opportunity for South African tourism and that the country remains a favoured destination among Muslim travellers.
“Given the strategic importance of the tourism industry to our economy, tourism operators and authorities should be looking at ways to expand market share in this vibrant segment.”
Malaysia retained top spot in the overall rankings, while Indonesia moved up to joint-second with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Singapore retained pole position for the non-OIC destination markets.
Listen to the interview with Mark Elliot
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