Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Regulating Accommodation Establishments
In the OIC Member Countries
16
total the OIC share for hotels and rooms of the global market was estimated at 10.3% in
2015.10 The estimated number of the OIC hotels, based on STR Global estimates and
DinarStandard analysis using UNWTO statistics, was 16,000 establishments in 2015, with 1.5
million rooms. 11 As the table below shows, the OIC countries with the largest number of
hotels are Turkey, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
Table 4: Number of Hotels in the OIC Countries (2015)
Country No. of Hotels No. of Rooms
Turkey 3,295 306,295
Malaysia 2,178 202,505
United Arab Emirates 1,985 184,564
Indonesia 1,332 123,836
Saudi Arabia 1,254 116,575
Source: DinarStandard Analysis
We have identified 680 Muslim-friendly travel accommodation establishments with either
focused or mixed offerings in 2015.12 This estimate includes certified hotels and hotels that
identify themselves as Muslim-friendly without external verification. The countries with the
largest number of Muslim-friendly accommodation establishments are Malaysia, Turkey, the
United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. Malaysia has 368 accommodation establishments that
have been Halal-certified by JAKIM. There are 140 Muslim-friendly accommodations with
mixed and focused offerings identified in Turkey, 36 identified in the United Arab Emirates
and 35 identified in Indonesia. Malaysia and Turkey alone account for nearly 88% of the total
number of Muslim-friendly accommodations identified.
An estimated 60% of Muslim-friendly accommodations are 4 and 5 star hotels, namely 403
establishments. The remaining accommodation establishments represent other hotels,
resorts, motels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, villas, vacation/peer rentals, and private homes.
Only 58 accommodation establishments fit the focused offerings criteria; they are certified
Halal, serving Halal food only as well as providing Halal products and services targeting
Muslim consumers.
10 The total share of hotels and rooms in the OIC countries of the global market was estimated using the percentage of the
OIC countries inbound travel expenditure out of the global market from UNWTO Tourism Report 2016 statistics.
11 To calculate the total number of OIC hotels and rooms, we have used the OIC inbound travel expenditure as a share of the
global market estimated at 10.3 % and applied this to the STR Global estimates to calculate the number of hotels and rooms
in the OIC countries, which represent 16,000 hotels and 1.5 million rooms. We have assumed STR Global estimates are
satisfactory and we have applied the inbound travel spend for each country by UNWTO statistics as a relative percentage to
estimate the number of rooms across each country. As a result, we have assumed the domestic tourism numbers, which are
not included in our approach are consistent with the inbound proportion for all countries and this is a limitation to our
estimates as domestic tourism impact varies by country.
12 The estimate provided underestimates the complete MFT accommodations market size as the methodology does not
include MFT accommodations that do not advertise Muslim-friendly tourism offerings online through the sources we have
listed. The total number of MFT accommodations we have estimated only includes MFT accommodations we have
identified through the following sources: , HalalTrip, Tripfez, Serendipity Travel, ,
Luxury Halal Travel, Instituto Halal, HolidayME, Bali Halal Tour, Islamiotel, , ,
, and JAKIM.