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Muslim Tourists Spending more, Outpacing Global Growth Rate |
7 August 2012The Muslim tourist market is set to grow 4.8% through 2020, compared to a global average of 3.8%, according to a recent study.
Muslim tourists represent a major market, worth $126.1bn in 2011. DinarStandard's study, titled Global Muslim Lifestyle Travel Market: Landscape & Consumer Needs, estimates the Muslim tourism trade to be 12.3% of the global total in 2011.
Muslim tourist spending is set to grow to $192bn by 2020 - representing 13.4% of total global expenditure.
Rafi-uddin Shikoh, Managing Director of DinarStandard, says, "Muslim tourists may very well be the largest un-tapped niche market of the tourism Industry. Airlines, destinations and hotels/resorts can benefit tremendously by catering to the unique Muslim lifestyle travel drivers of Halal food, family friendly environments, religious practices accommodation, gender relation nuances, and other areas. We have made distinct, practical recommendations for Muslim and Non-Muslim market based tourism players."
The Muslim tourist market as a whole outstrips Germany, the largest spending tourist market in the world, and almost doubles China figures from 2011. The top destinations for Muslim tourists are Malaysia, Turkey, and the UAE, followed by Singapore, Russia, China France, Thailand and Italy.
More demand for halal-friendly travel
Amidst the global economic downturn, the study marks how airlines, resorts and surrounding businesses can benefit from engaging with a young, Muslim demographic. With a unique and specific set of needs, this is a group growing in affluence and stamping their mark on the tourism industry.
When asked about priorities for during travel for leisure, two of the top three responses were specific to the Muslim faith. Halal food (67%) and a 'Muslim-friendly experience' (49%) were listed number one and number three in terms of highest importance, with overall price (53%) in second place - a sure indication than tourism and associated enterprises outside of Muslim majority countries should be heeding this market.
"With the rapid growth of the Muslim travellers, there was a need for a comprehensive global study on this segment of travellers. This study will now let travel industry players to evaluate the potential of the Muslim lifestyle travel market by region, and develop key engagement frameworks for a high impact market strategy." says Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of halal-friendly travel guide Crescentrating.
Mena markets represented 60% of the total Muslim tourist outbound expenditure last year and the top outbound source country is Saudi Arabia, followed by Iran, UAE, Indonesia and Kuwait. The largest tourism share from non-Muslim majority countries with Muslim communities comes from Germany, Russia, France and the UK. |
7 August 2012
ameinfo
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