Indonesia won the title of Top Muslim Friendly Destination of the Year 2024 in the Mastercard Crescent Rating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) which took place in Singapore, Thursday (5/30/2024). Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Uno attended directly and received the award at Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium, Singapore.
“Surely we need to maintain this mandate, we guard, and we continue to improve. Because Muslim friendly is related to the hygiene of a product,” said Sandiaga in the speech after receiving the award.
The predicate as a Muslim friendly country in 2024 made Indonesia succeed in defending a similar title in 2023. Sandiaga considered the award to be a reminder that the potential of the halal industry was still very large to be developed. In second place, Indonesia was followed by Malaysia and Saudi Arabia in third. Completing the top five there are Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in fourth and fifth positions. Meanwhile, the non-member country that won the title of the most Muslim friendly country was Singapore. As runner up the British, in third, fourth and fifth ranked in a row are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand.
Sandiaga said the global Muslim population reached 2 billion or around 25 percent of the world population in 2022. According to the Global Report of the Muslim Travel Index 2023, the number was estimated to increase by 2.3 billion or around 27 percent of the world population in 2030.
“This is an opportunity and the potential of the halal industry to be able to develop exponentially. Because the global Muslim population continues to grow,” said Sandiaga.
Since the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) in 2023 has placed Indonesia as the first top destination for Muslim tourists. Indonesia continues to expand services for Muslim tourists and promote Muslim-friendly tourism services, encourage a longer visitor to live, and increase tourist spending.
In 2024, Muslim-friendly tourism in Indonesia prioritizes several programs such as halal certification for business and MSMEs, digitalpreneur santri, e-catalogs of the Indonesian Great Mosque, Global Hub of Modest Fashion, to bilateral collaboration with Saudi Arabia.
Sandiaga said that the series of programs was expected to realize the achievement of the target of 17 million foreign tourist visits and 1.5 billion domestic tourist movements in 2024. And accelerate the opening of employment, one of which relies on halal tourism.
“Creation of employment in the tourism sector is six times more than other sectors. And this is also primarily able to empower the community significantly,” said Sandiaga.
May 31, 2024, detikTravel
(https://travel.detik.com/travel-news/d-7367504/indonesia-juara-destinasi-ramah-muslim-2024)