Malaysia Muslim Travelers’ Top Choice

Malaysia is the most preferred global destination in the fast-growing Muslim travel market, despite two catastrophic air disasters that hit the country’s flag-carrier in 2014, a survey showed Wednesday.

Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Indonesia followed Malaysia in the ranking of choice holiday destinations for Muslim travelers, said a report by Islamic travel specialist Crescentrating and payments giant MasterCard.

The report evaluates countries in terms of their attentiveness to the needs of Muslim travelers, including the presence and accessibility of “halal” restaurants with food prepared to Islamic standards, and the provision of prayer rooms at airports, shopping malls and hotels.

Scores in these and other variables were tabulated into a Global Muslim Travel Index in which Malaysia came on top with a score of 83.8, followed by Turkey (73.8), UAE (72.1), Saudi Arabia (71.3), Qatar (68.2) and Indonesia (67.5).

 “For Muslim travelers, Malaysia still remains the top choice simply because it is a great holiday destination for families while offering a very Muslim friendly environment,” said Crescentrating Chief Executive Fazal Bahardeen.

 “This includes everything from excellent attractions, halal food, accommodation, shopping to places for prayers. Malaysia has one of the best infrastructures for the Muslim traveler,” he told AFP.

Fazal said 5.9 million Muslim visitors visited Malaysia in 2014, up from 5.7 million in 2013. The report, the first carried out jointly by Crescentrating and MasterCard, involved 81 non-Muslim country destinations and 29 Muslim nations.

Among the non-Muslim destinations included in the study, Singapore emerged as the top choice followed by Thailand. Taiwan and Japan also got high rankings, placing 10 and 11th, respectively.

Singapore has “some of the best halal food environments,” while Thailand, Japan and Taiwan have taken big steps to meet the needs of Islamic holiday-goers, Fazal said. “The typical Muslim consumer is now younger, educated and with a larger disposable income,” the report said.