Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
92
4.6 Spain
1. Type/Focus area for case study
Field case study/Marketing and MFT.
2. Reasoning behind focus area choice
Spain, and especially the south of Spain, Andalucía, is making great efforts to attract Muslim
travelers. Given the lack of national government policies and strategies that identify MFT as a
key market for the tourism industry, this effort is driven by SME’s, and, in some cases, in
partnerships with local authorities. The lack of national strategies and help to promote Spain
as a Muslim-friendly destination is forcing these SME’s to be very creative in their business
models and in the way they overcome challenges, working out problems from the simple to
the complex and working with what is available for them.
3. Background
Table 8: Spain – Tourism Figures
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 CAGR
Total Inbound Tourist
Arrivals (Mil)
65 66.43 67.89 69.39 70.91 72.47 74.07 2.20%
Total Inbound
Expenditure ($ Bil)
65.2 66.63 68.10 69.60 71.13 72.69 74.29 2.20%
Total Outbound
Expenditure ($ Bil)
17.97 19.65 21.50 23.51 25.71 28.12 30.76 9.37%
Muslim Tourist
Arrivals (Mil)
1.46 1.49 1.52 1.56 1.59 1.63 1.66 2.20%
Source: UNWTO; DinarStandard synthesis and analysis; Government Statistics.
Spain’s Muslim tourist arrivals have been estimated to grow the slowest among case study
countries analyzed by 2.2 percent CAGR from 1.5 million arrivals in 2015 to 1.7 million
arrivals in 2020. The CAGR mirrors total inbound tourist arrivals and total inbound
expenditure, which is estimated to grow from 66.4 million arrivals spending $66.6 billion in
2015 to nearly 74 million arrivals spending $74 billion in 2020.
Despite a relative success, the number of Muslim travelers, although increasing, is relatively
small, only 2.8 million out of more than 68 million tourists that arrived to Spain in 2014 were
Muslims, i.e. they came from a Muslim majority country.230 Spain has also descended from the
9th position in the MGTI in 2015 to the 11th in the MGTI 2016 as a non-OIC MFT
destination. 231
230 Europapress. "España Recibió 2,6 Millones De Turistas Musulmanes En 2014." 15 Mar. 2015. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
231 CrescentRating. "Global Muslim Travel Index." Web. 09 Apr. 2106.