Muslim travel is projected to reach 262 million arrivals by 2030, and AI is impacting how these travellers make their travel decisions
Based on the Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2026, Muslim international arrivals are expected to reach 262 million by 2030, generating US$310 billion in annual expenditure. Growth is increasingly coming from source markets including diaspora communities in Europe, North America and East Asia, creating a more diverse traveller base.
Fazal Bahardeen, founder and CEO of CrescentRating and HalalTrip, said: “This is not really a post-pandemic catch-up story anymore. The baseline has permanently shifted. Destinations now need to recalibrate their plans to this new reality.”
As the market expands, the way Muslim travellers plan and book trips is also evolving.
For years, Muslim-friendly travel was largely built around information. Travellers searched for halal restaurants and prayer facilities, compared reviews and verified claims across multiple sources before deciding where to stay or visit.
Today, AI is beginning to take over much of that work. Travel discovery is shifting towards AI-powered assistants that can interpret traveller intent and provide recommendations in real time. Rather than searching individually for halal restaurants, prayer facilities or Muslim-friendly hotels, travellers can ask AI to curate itineraries based on their preferences.
GMTI 2026 found that 80 per cent of travellers now use AI tools for travel planning, highlighting the shift towards AI-assisted decision-making.
For more than a decade, destinations seeking a larger share of the Muslim market have focused on halal food, prayer facilities, certification schemes and destination rankings. These remain important, but are increasingly baseline expectations.
The challenge is ensuring these services can also be surfaced and trusted by AI systems influencing traveller decisions.
This has prompted CrescentRating to develop the AI Recommendation Readiness Auditor (AIRA), a beta tool evaluating how visible and credible destinations and tourism businesses appear within AI-powered recommendation systems.
It has also introduced the Destination Activation Stack, a framework encouraging destinations to ensure Muslim-friendly services are discoverable, trusted and relevant in an AI-driven travel environment.
Fazal warned that destinations not readable by AI risk becoming invisible to the next generation of Muslim travellers.
The growing reliance on AI raises the question of whether the Muslim travel ecosystem is ready for machine-driven discovery.
Halal certification presents a particular challenge. While prayer times and qibla directions are available in structured formats that AI systems can process, halal certification remains fragmented across different standards and jurisdictions.
An AI assistant may therefore know when a traveller should pray but struggle to verify whether a restaurant meets halal requirements.
As travellers increasingly rely on AI-generated recommendations, inaccuracies can quickly undermine confidence. A wrong restaurant suggestion is not merely an inconvenience for Muslim travellers; it can call into question the credibility of the recommendation system.
Trust therefore remains critical amid concerns around inaccurate recommendations, outdated information and fabricated reviews.
Referring to AI agents, Umair Hameed, vice president, consumer solutions sales lead for South-east Asia at Mastercard, captured the dilemma when he asked: “In God we trust. But can you really trust your agent?”
Beyond discoverability and trust, personalisation presents another opportunity.
Muslim travellers have traditionally been treated as a single segment, based on the assumption that those sharing the same faith have broadly similar needs.
Fateh Ali, founder and CEO of SmartDeen.com and Twillion.ai, noted that while Muslim travellers share religious requirements, their expectations, behaviours and spending power differ across markets.
AI could address these differences by combining behavioural data, travel history, spending patterns and contextual information to tailor experiences.
The hospitality sector is already moving in that direction.
Abdullah Basalamah, area general manager and vice president, rooms, Far East Hospitality, believes that Muslim-friendly hospitality should move beyond halal certification to understanding guest preferences before arrival.
At Far East Hospitality’s serviced residences in Singapore, where Gulf Cooperation Council travellers are an important segment, efforts have been made to replace alcoholic minibar offerings with non-alcoholic alternatives, provide dedicated crockery and cutlery, and adapt services to cultural preferences.
For Dieter Ruckenbauer, general manager of Le Méridien Bangkok, the future lies in anticipating needs before guests could ask.
“The biggest luxury for travellers is not the amenity itself. It’s the peace of mind that everything has already been considered before their arrival,” said Ruckenbauer.
The next phase of Muslim travel growth will be shaped by destinations and travel brands that combine trust, discoverability and personalisation.
As AI evolves from a search tool into a travel companion, competitive advantage may come not from offering more Muslim-friendly facilities, but from delivering experiences relevant to individual travellers.
Source: www.ttgasia.com
