GCC to become preferred holiday destinations during Ramadan from 2023
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Recent research conducted by MasterCard and CresentRating revealed that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states are set to benefit from growth in Muslim travelers during Ramadan.
The growing trend by Muslims to travel during fasting period will see destinations in the GCC region become most attractive by 2023 according to data and analysis from the inaugural MasterCard-CrescentRating Ramadan Travel Report 2016.
A total of 50 destinations across the globe were analyzed in the study and benchmarked across three criteria – average daytime temperature, fasting duration and Global Muslim Travel Index 2016 scores – over the next 15 years until 2030.
With Ramadan set to take place in cooler months from 2023, destinations in the Middle East such as UAE, Qatar and Oman will become an attractive proposition for Muslim travellers. The report also showed that Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia could also benefit from this trend.
“Ramadan travel has been largely ignored by the industry despite growing trend in the last few years. Muslims traveling in Ramadan is becoming a reality and one which can benefit countries, through strategic destination marketing and planning by the tourism authorities,” said Fazal Bahardeen CEO of CrescentRating and HalalTrip.
The report also shows that Malaysia remains top ranked destination for most of the years until 2026. Six key drivers have been identified to be contributing to increasing number of Muslims traveling during Ramadan. These include growing number of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, business travel, spending Ramadan with family, experiencing Ramadan in a different environment and culture, celebrating Eid with family as well as extreme weather conditions or duration of fasting.
The MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2016 revealed that in 2015, there were an estimated 117 million Muslim visitor arrivals globally, representing close to 10% of the entire travel market. This is forecasted to grow to 168 m visitors by 2020 the equivalent of 11% of the market segment with a market value projected to exceed US$200 billion.
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