KSA tops as favorite ‘halal holiday’ destination
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Saudi Arabia has been ranked the favourite destination for Muslim travelers, according to a recent survey. Malaysia tops the list, but Japan has also shown most improvement as it ramps up efforts to cash in on a growing market, as reported in Saudi Gazette.
Saudi Arabia is on number five in this year’s top 10 rankings for ‘halal’ friendly holiday destinations released by Singapore-based Muslim travel specialist Crescentrating. The top ten in order are: Malaysia, UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Morocco, Jordan, Qatar and Tunisia.
The survey evaluates countries in terms of their attentiveness to needs of Muslim travellers, including presence and accessibility of halal restaurants with meat slaughtered to Islamic standards, and provision of prayer rooms at airports, shopping malls and hotels.
“An increasing number of destinations are now keen on tapping into this segment and adapting their services to take into account the unique faith-based needs of Muslim travelers,” said Crescentrating chief executive Fazal Bahardeen.
He said the Muslim travel market was estimated to be worth US$140 billion last year, accounting for almost 13% of the global total. It is expected to rise to US$200 bn by 2020, he added.
The number of tourists visiting the Kingdom is estimated to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2% to 21.3 million over the period 2013-2023.
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