Thailand among most ‘Muslim-friendly’

By The Nation

 

 

THAILAND is ranked second among Non-OIC markets as “the most Muslim-friendly travel destination”, the Mastercard-Crescent Rating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2018 reported yesterday.

 

Malaysia and Singapore have retained their positions as the top-ranked destinations in the US220 billion global Muslim travel market as rivals seek to close the gap, according to the annual research on the sector.

 

In this year's GMTI, Thailand improved its ranking by two spots to the 16th position among 130 destinations. The improvement can be attributed to the continued effort by Thailand's tourism stakeholders in broadening the availability of Halal restaurants and promoting the destination to Muslim travelers.

 

Among non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations, Thailand retained its second position behind Singapore, as the most Muslim-friendly destination for travelers. Japan and Taiwan surged into the top five for the first time since the GMTI was released.

 

 

The Mastercard-Crescent Rating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2018, which covers 130 destinations, saw Malaysia retain the premier spot in the overall rankings (including both IOC and non-IOC nations) whilst Indonesia's year-on-year growth saw it moved up to joint second with the United Arab Emirates.

 

A number of Asian destinations improved their rankings as they adapt their services to attract Muslim travelers. The index highlighted the lack of a strong digital presence by most destinations.

 

The index, which was officially launched in Jakarta in April, confirmed the Muslim travel market will continue its fast-paced growth to reach US$220 billion in 2020 and US$300 billion by 2026.

 

In 2017, there were an estimated 131 million Muslim visitor arrivals globally - up from 121 million in 2016. This is forecasted to grow to 156 million visitors by 2020, representing 10 per cent of the travel segment. Muslim visitor arrivals in Thailand were estimated to be 3.6 million, approximately 10 per cent of the tourists to Thailand in 2017.

 

“We are now starting to see the impact of investment and commitment by destinations across the world into the Muslim travel market which is reaping rewards including a real shift in the rankings. The concerted efforts of destinations such as Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan using data and insights from the previous GMTI reports have to be commended as they are now closing the gap,” said Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating & HalalTrip.

 

“This year we have revamped the Index criteria to better reflect the growth strategies implemented by destinations to welcome the Muslim travelers resulting in positive movement across the Index. We have also released the ‘Crescent-Rating Growth & Innovation Model’ to help destinations practically use this report to strategize growth and innovation for this fast paced travel segment,” added Bahardeen.

 

Thailand is catching up to the leaders in attracting Muslim visitors as government initiatives such as the National e-Payment Plan and Standardised QR Code makes traveling safer and more convenient for more diverse international visitors, said Donald Ong, Country Manager, Thailand and Myanmar, Mastercard. “Thailand is already ranked second among non-OIC countries as our growing tourism industry taps into this increasingly important market segment,” he added.

 

All 130 destinations in the GMTI2018 have been ranked against a backdrop of criteria with some new metrics added for this year's research including the CrescentRating Growth-Innovation Model.

 

Key metrics included access, which contains infrastructure, communications, and looking at how destinations market themselves to a target audience environment and services. Each criterion is then weighted to make up the overall index score.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Tourism/30344902

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-09

And that of course includes Rohingya obviously.  Always welcomed them with open arms haven't they? It also goes without saying how much Thais love their Muslim brothers down South. Just quietly how did Japan make the list? Just because they have started to let a few in hardly makes them "Muslim friendly". Perhaps this list could be renamed least Muslim misanthropic. 

Edited May 8, 20188 yr by starky

5 minutes ago, starky said:

And that of course includes Rohingya obviously.  Always welcomed them with open arms haven't they? It also goes without saying how much Thais love their Muslim brothers down South. Just quietly how did Japan make the list? Just because they have started to let a few in hardly makes them "Muslim friendly"

Why cant they just keep their stupid religious claptrap out  of it and say "people friendly"

"Thailand among most ‘Muslim-friendly’...the US220 billion global Muslim travel market..."

For a Buddhist country, isn't it interesting that Thailand bases most of its human values on a monetary scale?
 

Edited May 8, 20188 yr by jaltsc

Me thing that Thailand indeed a muslim friendly country, and at times,

even more than a farang friendly, that in my opinion, contribute

much more to this to this country that the muslims minority, not to 

mention the troubled south of course...

Tends to be cavemen trumpites and old fogies who are predominantly anti muslim.

Then again racists rarely even like themselves never mind people who are not from where they are from.

And the result is the south.

1 hour ago, Expatthailover said:

Tends to be cavemen trumpites and old fogies who are predominantly anti muslim.

Then again racists rarely even like themselves never mind people who are not from where they are from.

Tends to be exceedingly stupid people who either don't know what the word "racist" means or for some reason think that "Muslim" is a race.

Edited May 9, 20188 yr by Angelo99

27 minutes ago, Angelo99 said:

Tends to be exceedingly stupid people who either don't know what the word "racist" means or for some reason think that "Muslim" is a race.

It is very common to us the concepts of race and ethnicity  interchangeably. he is not defining muslim as a race.

37 minutes ago, AYJAYDEE said:

It is very common to us the concepts of race and ethnicity  interchangeably. he is not defining muslim as a race.

 

No it's not. A race and ethnicity have nothing to do with religious persuasion. Not all Muslims are Arabs for instance. Not all Christians are Europeans, etc etc.

 

Those who assume all Muslims, and all Muslim countries must be identical just demonstrate their lack of intelligence and knowledge. 

A racist post has been removed.

 

11) You will not post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments directed towards Thailand, specific locations, Thai institutions such as the judicial or law enforcement system, Thai culture, Thai people or any other group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

A number of off topic, racist or bickering post and answers to them have bee removed.

 

Please keep on topic.

 

11) You will not post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments directed towards Thailand, specific locations, Thai institutions such as the judicial or law enforcement system, Thai culture, Thai people or any other group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

 

9) You will not post inflammatory messages on the forum, or attempt to disrupt discussions to upset its participants, or trolling. Trolling can be defined as the act of purposefully antagonizing other people on the internet by posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand among most ‘Muslim-friendly’

That's one way of discouraging the infidels from coming to Thailand. 

Removed a troll post and the replies to it.

8 hours ago, kannot said:

Why cant they just keep their stupid religious claptrap out  of it and say "people friendly"

I guess it's because they are Muslim first and people second.

25 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

I guess it's because they are Muslim first and people second.

Seems to be.

Cough Cough Bull Cough $#1t.. Thais aren't 'Anyone-Friendly' 

Oh, i'm most surprised, I thought it was the uk.

I think they should have  a recount.

Fix, Fix,  It's a Fix. 

14 hours ago, AYJAYDEE said:

It is very common to us the concepts of race and ethnicity  interchangeably. he is not defining muslim as a race.

 

Race and ethnicity are not interchangeable. Ethnicity is a component of SOME methods of grouping people by race. Ethnicity in itself is not a race, it is a social/cultural grouping. Most methods of defining race deal with common ancestral geographical origin or physical traits, neither of which has to do with the current culture of a person.

 

By your definition, if someone moved to a new country and adopted their culture and integrated into their society, they would have changed their race. Makes no sense.

 

"he is not defining muslim as a race."

 

Then he shouldn't be implying that people who don't like totalitarian ideologies are "racist".

Edited May 9, 20188 yr by Angelo99

16 hours ago, Expatthailover said:

Tends to be cavemen trumpites and old fogies who are predominantly anti muslim.

Then again racists rarely even like themselves never mind people who are not from where they are from.

All religions are equally   stupid, something based on zero evidence its ludicrous....YES Im anti muslim, anti ALL religions, call me a bigot for not "believing" something based on no evidence, running your life based on "no evidence" then ramming that "belief" down people's throats, thats religions for you and  dont forget  the "respect" nonsense too, I gotta "respect it"

Total stupidity, may as  well "believe" anything you are  told however ridiculous, Id  say its more a case of the "stupid"  telling everyone else how to   run their life and woe  betide anyone who now speaks out about this crap, bigots, racists ,right wing nazis etc etc etc.

Why dont this bunch of no brainers suggest we start seeing if the witch sinks or floats as  well? and you must respect my floating witch mumbo jumbo.

The world  in 21st Century, what hope is there with this   prehistoric  rubbish, defies reason..

 

Edited May 9, 20188 yr by kannot

1 minute ago, kannot said:

All religions are equally   stupid, something based on zero evidence its ludicrous....YES Im anti muslim, anti ALL religions, call me a bigot for not "believing" something based on no evidence, running your life based on "no evidence" then ramming that "belief" down people's throats, thats religions for you and  dont forget  the "respect" nonsense too, I gotta "respect it"

Total stupidity, may as  well "believe" anything you are  told however ridiculous, Id  say its more a case of the "stupid"  telling everyone else how to   run their life and woe  betide anyone who now speaks out about this crap, bigots, racists ,right wing nazis etc etc etc.

Why dont this bunch of no brainers suggest we start seeing if the witch sinks or floats as  well? and you must respect my floating witch mumbo jumbo.

The world  in 21st Century, what hope is there with  prehistoric  rubbish, defies reason..

 

who called you a bigot?

4 minutes ago, AYJAYDEE said:

who called you a bigot?

its a  well touted  line  used increasingly  by, but not inclusive,  to  muslims against anyone who points out the nonsense of religion, usual for them to include "racist" in amongst it also

Edited May 9, 20188 yr by kannot

59 minutes ago, Angelo99 said:

 

Race and ethnicity are not interchangeable. Ethnicity is a component of SOME methods of grouping people by race. Ethnicity in itself is not a race, it is a social/cultural grouping. Most methods of defining race deal with common ancestral geographical origin or physical traits, neither of which has to do with the current culture of a person.

 

By your definition, if someone moved to a new country and adopted their culture and integrated into their society, they would have changed their race. Makes no sense.

 

"he is not defining muslim as a race."

 

Then he shouldn't be implying that people who don't like totalitarian ideologies are "racist".

the concepts may not be but the usage of the words themselves has come to be.

2 minutes ago, kannot said:

its a  well touted  line  used increasingly  by, but not inclusive,  to  muslims against anyone who points out the nonsense of religion, usual for them to include "racist" in amongst it also

so nobody yet? but youre concerned someone might and youre just warning them?

 

Just now, AYJAYDEE said:

so nobody yet? but youre concerned someone might and youre just warning them?

 

 

Just now, AYJAYDEE said:

so nobody yet? but youre concerned someone might and youre just warning them?

 

"warning" hahaha yeah ok if u like.

Just now, kannot said:

 

"warning" hahaha yeah ok if u like.

excellent move, I'll bet the meanies are having second thoughts about taking YOU on

6 minutes ago, kannot said:

 

"warning" hahaha yeah ok if u like.

and I'm certainly looking forward to you bad mouthing all christians, jews and buddhists too! so entertaining.

7 hours ago, Somchai Logic said:

Cough Cough Bull Cough $#1t.. Thais aren't 'Anyone-Friendly' 

Baht friendly

Just now, AYJAYDEE said:

and I'm certainly looking forward to you bad mouthing all christians, jews and buddhists too! so entertaining.

anything else?

Just now, kannot said:

anything else?

the sky's the limit! there are literally dozens of groups for you to despise!!