South Africa was named fourth among the non-Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations in the 2015 Global Muslim Travel Index.

Among the non-OIC destinations Singapore scored the highest Index score of 65.1 followed by Thailand at 59.2 with South Africa scoring 51.1.

The Index, a MasterCard and CrescentRating initiative, revealed that in 2014 this segment was worth $145 billion, with 108 million Muslim travelers representing 10% of the entire travel economy. This is forecast to grow to 150 million visitors by 2020 and 11% of the market with an expenditure projected to grow to $200 billion.

Muslim travel will continue to be one of the fastest growing travel sectors in the world. The Muslim population is growing rapidly and is expected to become 26.5% of the world’s population by 2030. Faith is increasingly influencing purchasing decisions of travelers. This has been illustrated over the last decade by the accelerated growth of Halal food, Islamic banking and lifestyle sectors.

CrescentRating is the world’s leading authority on Halal-friendly travel. The company 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 organizations across the globe.