Qatar, UAE among world's top five popular Muslim hotspots

The MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2016 saw Qatar maintain its position as the fifth friendliest nation to visit for Muslim travelers.

Meanwhile, the UAE moved up one spot from last year to take the second position behind Malaysia, which retained its pole position on the list of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations.

Unseated by the UAE as the second best place to visit, Turkey came in third place this year, followed by Indonesia, which climbed two places since 2015, pushing Saudi Arabia down to sixth.

The biggest mover, however, was Bahrain, jumping four spots to take the 10th position.

The study also revealed that in 2015, there were an estimated 117 million Muslim visitor arrivals globally, representing close to 10 percent of the entire travel market.

This is expected to grow to 168 million visitors by 2020, equal to 11 percent of the market segment with a market value projected to exceed $200 billion.

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

In terms of non-OIC countries, Singapore once again ranked first, in large part for having one of the best halal food environments. Thailand placed second, followed by the UK, South Africa and Hong Kong.

The study was based on factors such as ease of travel for Muslims, access to halal restaurants and the provision of prayer rooms in airports, shopping malls and hotels.

"One of the biggest trends we are seeing is non-OIC destinations making a concerted effort to attract the Muslim tourist," Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating & HalalTrip, told Arabian Business.

"They now represent over 63 percent of the destinations covered in the GMTI," he added.

"For example, Japan and Philippines have taken some major steps over the last few months to diversify their visitor arrivals and boost their economy in the process."

The study was conducted by Islamic travel company CrescentRating and credit card firm MasterCard, assessing 130 countries based on factors such as ease of travel for Muslims, access to halal restaurants and the provision of prayer rooms in airports, shopping malls and hotels.

CrescentRating uses insights, industry intelligence, lifestyle, behaviour and research on the needs of the Muslim traveler to deliver authoritative guidance on all aspects of Halal-friendly travel to organisations across the globe, the study explained in the introduction.