KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — Malaysia has taken the top spot in the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) for the ninth year in a row, but for the first time, it is sharing that position with Indonesia.

The GMTI 2019 report, which includes 130 destinations globally, gave both countries a score of 78.

In a joint statement today, MasterCard and CrescentRating said Indonesia climbed from second place to the top spot through the sustained efforts by the country’s Tourism Ministry to invest in its tourism and travel industry, and develop Muslim-tourist friendly infrastructure.

The rest of the top 10 countries are Turkey (score of 75), Saudi Arabia (72), United Arab Emirates (71), Qatar (68), Morocco (67), Bahrain (66), Oman (66) and Brunei (65).

In 2018, Malaysia received a score of 80.6 while Indonesia tied with United Arab Emirates with a score of 72.8.

Singapore remains the premier Muslim-friendly travel destination among non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations this year, followed by Thailand, the United Kingdom, Japan and Taiwan.

The index tracks the health and growth of Muslim-friendly travel destinations in four strategic areas — access, communications, environment and services. — Bernama