In 2014 a Reuters report estimated that Muslim travelers worldwide had expended an enormous $142 billion on travel and vacation, exclusive of Hajj and Umrah. Some of the bigger spenders were travelers from China who spent approximately $160 billion and US travelers spent more than $143 billion that year than the Muslim globetrotters.
In 2014, Halal tourism ranked the third-largest industry and accounted for about 11% of the total amount of money spent on travel.
According to the data of the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI), last year about $155 billion were expended by Muslim travelers. This figure shows 13% of the total global travel expenses.
In terms of halal tourism, Malaysia is considered the first choice. Besides, the country has also earned the standing of being a “Muslim-friendly” destination. United Arab Emirate, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were other popular tourist destinations for Muslims. There has been a constant rise in the number of Muslim tourists annually, from around 117 million in 2015, to about 121 million people last year. The figure is expected to surpass 168 million benchmark by the year 2020.
With the recent twists and turns in the U.S. and the alterations in politics due to President Donald Trump, travel experts wait for a declining tendency with respect to halal tourism in the U.S. On the other hand, Africa seems to profit from drawing a closing to the U.S. borders to Muslims as there has been a huge arrival of Muslim visitors to Northern Africa, especially Morocco and Egypt.
