Bahrain enters top 10 places to visit

Manama: Bahrain has climbed into the top 10 most popular destinations in the global Muslim travel market, according to the most comprehensive research focusing on this fast-growing sector.

The MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2016, which covers 130 destinations, saw Bahrain claim tenth position on the list of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations.

Bahrain became the biggest mover in the top 10 this year jumping four spots, with Indonesia climbing two places to take the fourth spot.

Malaysia held on to its pole position followed by UAE, Turkey, Indonesia and Qatar.

Singapore also retained its pole position for the non-OIC destinations, with Thailand, the UK, South Africa and Hong Kong making up the top five.

The study also revealed that in 2015, there were an estimated 117 million Muslim visitor arrivals globally, representing close to 10 per cent of the entire travel market. This is forecasted to grow to 168 million visitors by 2020 equal to 11pc of the market segment with a market value projected to exceed US$200 billion.

Asia and Europe were also revealed as the two leading regions in the world for attracting Muslim visitors - accounting for 87pc of the entire market.

“The Muslim travel market is flourishing in each of the GCC states and these high rankings are further testament to the continuous growth and development of this sector in these countries. We believe that the GMTI provides real value to businesses and governments looking to tap into this important market segment further,” said Raghav Prasad, General Manager, Gulf Countries, MasterCard.

Bahrain had an Index score of 63.3 placing it in eleventh position in the overall combined ranking. Malaysia scored 81.9, followed by the UAE at 74.7, Turkey with 73.9 and Indonesia at 70.6. In comparison, the highest scoring non-OIC destination Singapore scored 68.4 with second place Thailand at 59.5.

Taiwan and Japan have continued to improve their overall rankings and the average GMTI scores by region show Asia as the leading region.

The overall average GMTI score for the complete 130 destinations currently stands at 43.7. From a regional perspective, Asia Pacific destinations lead with an average GMTI score of 56.5.