Before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, halal tourism was experiencing strong growth. Nearly 160 million Muslim tourists traveled in 2019 compared to 42 million travelers in 2020, the latest report from Crescentrating reveals.
Altogether, more than 90% of these 42 million people traveled in the first quarter of the year, before many countries decided to close their borders.
The report predicts that by 2023, halal tourism will have covered 80% of the departures recorded in 2019, before the health crisis. The pandemic has inflicted a heavy toll on the travel industry. However, tourism is a resilient sector, and we all look forward to the gradual reopening of international borders for travel.
Experts highlight that 2021 has begun with positive news around the development and approval of vaccines by various destinations.
A global effort to vaccinate the population remains essential to accelerate tourism recovery at a time when new Covid-19 variants are rampant in many countries. Other important factors for tourism recovery include the emergence of new travel experiences by 2023 and the proliferation of "travel bubbles".
The data further states that Malaysia remains the favorite destination for Muslim tourists since 2019 followed by Turkey (2nd) and Saudi Arabia (3rd). Among non-member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Singapore, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom rank in the top 20.