Kuala Lumpur and Penang among Top 10 favoured holiday destinations for Muslim travellers

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 29, 2015:

Muslim tourists spent US$62 billion on shopping and dining while holidaying, making Kuala Lumpur and Penang to be among the favoured Top 10 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.

After Dubai, Kuala Lumpur the city which boasts the iconic KL Twin Towers and numerous heritage tourist spots, topped the list in the MasterCard-Cresent Rating Muslim Travel Shopping Index 2015, with Penang clinching the ninth position after Bali.

Kuala Lumpur came in second most popular destination for shopping and dining, ahead of Singapore, on an overall list of 40 cities which came under the MTSI2015 survey on Muslim travellers and their shopping habits.

The survey comprised Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries, and non-OIC countries, with Singapore topping the list of destinations amongst non-OIC countries which included London, Paris, Bangkok, New York and Hong Kong.

The 40 cities covered in the MTSI2015 survey were scored against certain criteria which included sustainability as a shopping destination, Muslim friendly services and facilities, ease of travel.

"The report is a fascinating insight into the shopping habits of Muslim consumers and will prove to be a valuable tool to the entire sector," said CrescentRating and HalalTrip CEO, Fazal Bahardeen.

The Muslim population, with the majority coming from Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and the Gulf region and are becoming increasingly important segment for business across all sectors.

Their preferance for products and services are influenced by their faith based requirements, and this was clearly visible by the accelerated growth seen in the halal food and Islamic banking.

"The muslim travel market was worth US$145billion last year with 108 million muslim travellers, and this is expected to grow to 150 million travellers by 2020 spending almost US$200 billion."

MTSI 2015 report revealed that Muslim travelers spent a total of US$53.7 billion USD in terms of shopping and dining here in Kuala Lumpur.

The research looks at two important expenditure components which are shopping and dining and revealed a detailed insights about consumer spending behavior.

MTSI 2015 is the latest research collaboration between MasterCard and CrescentRating on this sector following the launch of the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2015 earlier this year.

Earlier this year, Malaysia was named as number one travel destination across the globe in the Muslim travel market, according to the Global Muslim Travel Index 2015 (GMTI 2015).

Source: Kuala Lumpur and Penang among Top 10 favoured holiday destinations for Muslim travellers