GCC tourism to grow with increasing Muslim travel in Ramadan: Study

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states are set to benefit from the growth in Muslim travellers during the Holy Month of Ramadan, according to new research released by MasterCard and CrescentRating on Thursday.

The growing trend by Muslims to travel during the fasting period will see destinations in the GCC region become the 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 analysed 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.

It is the first-ever report of its kind to provide destinations and businesses in the tourism industry with useful insights on how they can develop medium to long-term strategies to attract and cater to Muslim travellers during Ramadan over the coming years.

With Ramadan set to take place in cooler months from 2023, destinations in the Middle East such as the 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 the growing trend in the last few years," said Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating & HalalTrip.

"However, the report has revealed some very interesting insights especially for countries in the Middle East. Muslims travelling in Ramadan is becoming a reality and one which can benefit countries, through strategic destination marketing and planning by the tourism authorities", Bahardeen added.

The Global Muslim Travel Index 2016 revealed that in 2015 there were an estimated 117mn Muslim visitor arrivals globally, representing close to 10% of the entire travel market.

This is forecasted to grow to 168mn visitors by 2020 the equivalent of 11% of the market segment with a market value projected to exceed $200bn.

Courtesy: Qatar-tribune.com