South Africa, and Cape Town in particular, is well placed to attract the lucrative Muslim tourism market by providing Muslim-friendly beach resorts, family-friendly holidays and soft adventures, says Nahla Mesbah, Senior Associate at New York-based Dinar Standard strategic advisory firm.
Hosted by Wesgro, Mesbah presented market insights of her company’s State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2015/16 in Cape Town this week. She said there was a shortage of Muslim-friendly beach resorts worldwide, with Turkey being the only country answering the need, with about 70 halaal resorts.
The challenge for South Africa, she said, was how to market to and accommodate Muslims without alienating non-Muslims. She advised highlighting “family-friendly” or “Arabian hospitality” instead of “Muslim-friendly” or “halaal-friendly” to avoid alienating Western markets. She also suggested dedicated beaches, pools and spas, as “burkas next to bikinis is a problem”. Another challenge was investors’ lack of appetite for alcohol-free hotels, she said.
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Mesbah advised targeted campaigns, using tour operators in target markets. She cited the success of Australia’s ‘Muslim-friendly Holiday Ideas’; Marriott’s specialised service and staff training to cater for Muslim customers; and the specialised marketing by UK tour operator, Serendipity. All three companies had researched their target markets well and provided the best possible solutions to them. Some of the innovations they offered included free food lounges, prayer mats and extended shopping hours during Ramadan; Muslim travel guides; segregated hotel lounges for men and women; segregated weddings; guides to halaal restaurants and mosques; and an online halaal holiday destination finder.
According to the Dinar Standard report, the global Muslim market spent US$142bn (R2 040bn) on travel in 2014, which is expected to increase to US$233bn (R3 348bn), by 2020. The Islamic economy is growing at nearly double the global rate. The size of the global Muslim market ranks third after China and the USA. The biggest Muslim tourism spenders are Saudi Arabia (US$17.8bn or R255bn); the UAE (US$12.6bn or R232bn); Kuwait (US$9.7bn or R139bn) and Qatar (US$9.5bn or R136bn).
Travellers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait – represent only 3% of the global Muslim population, but represented 37% of global Muslim travel spend in 2014. They are high-yield as they stay in luxury accommodation, spend high on restaurants and luxury goods and stay three to four weeks in a destination. Muslims from south-east Asia are generally middle-class and looking for three-star accommodation instead.
Countries with the best-developed infrastructure for Muslim tourists are, in order: Malaysia, the UAE, Singapore, Thailand, Jordan, the Maldives, Turkey, Bahrain and Qatar. Rankings are based on their number of Muslim tourists, friendliness towards Muslims, facilities for Muslims and how much their economy depends on Muslim travel.
