18 FeatUre Halal Traveling Malaysia Takes Off as a Trendsetter by Philipp Nüßlein MGCC But can we really consider more than a billion Muslims as one target group especially in politically tensioned and culturally sensitive times where we learned not to tar all with the same brush Indeed the Muslim population is heterogenous since Muslims are spread over the whole world and hence subject to different external influences especially when they are living as sizeable minorities However Islam does not differentiate between humans based on colour wealth or any attribute but only on how righteous they are Therefore the definition of a nation from a religious perspective clearly distinguishes Muslims as a community Ummah that distinguishes itself by its deep spiritual similarities beyond national borders The Ummah is not only rapidly growing and will make up to 25 of the world s population by 2030 but shows also an increasing disposable income Hence marketing has only recently discovered the Muslim consumers as the forth billion consumer segment Alserhan 2011 besides Indians about 1 2 billion Chinese about 1 4 billion and Women that make 50 of the total world adult population Well known examples where the special needs of Muslims have been already recognized are Islamic Financing and the Halal Food Industry When Muslims travel however they need also to observe their religious obligations such as the daily prayers modest clothes avoiding cross gender interactions and Halal Food In order to enhance the understanding of the Halal traveling in detail for the stakeholders in the travel and hospitality sector the companies MasterCard and Crescent Rating developed the Global Muslim Travel Index GMTI The index analyses in depth data on covering 100 destinations since 2015 and increased to 130 destinations in 2016 In order to adjust services to the implied needs GMTI recommends service providers to understand Muslim requirements in three different levels as Need to have Good to have and Nice to have These are also considered in a different weighing within the criteria catalogue of the GMTI Summer time comes to an end and with it the holidays in which many of us tried to satisfy the wanderlust The early birds have even started planning their next holiday destination and activities So let s have a look at trends in the travel industry One of the fastest growing segments in this market continues to be Muslim traveling In 2015 it was estimated that there were 117 million Muslim international travellers The Global Islamic Economy Report 2015 forecasts a growth to 168 million by 2020 where the travel expenditure by Muslim travellers is expected to exceed USD 200 billion This trend is also illustrated by the increasing number of Halal travel conferences and events among others in South East Asia Japan and Spain

Hinweis: Dies ist eine maschinenlesbare No-Flash Ansicht.
Klicken Sie hier um zur Online-Version zu gelangen.