Frequently Asked Questions

CrescentRating is the global authority on Muslim-friendly (halal) travel, founded in Singapore in 2008. The company provides rating and accreditation, market research, destination strategy, training, and marketing services that help destinations and travel businesses serve Muslim travelers. CrescentRating publishes the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) and organizes the annual Halal In Travel Global Summit.

CrescentRating was founded in December 2008 with a dual mission: to help Muslim travelers explore the world with peace of mind, and to enable destinations and travel businesses to serve this fast-growing market through research, capability building, and independent accreditation. Learn more on our About Us page.

CrescentRating (one word) is the company. A Crescent Rating (two words) is the company's accreditation product: an independent rating of how well a hotel, restaurant, attraction, or other travel service caters to Muslim travelers. When a property says it is “Crescent Rated,” it means its Muslim-friendly services and facilities have been independently verified by CrescentRating.

CrescentRating offers seven core service lines: rating and accreditation of travel and hospitality services, research and consultancy on the Muslim travel market, live data dashboards that turn that research into year-round destination benchmarking tools, API access for partners who want to build on CrescentRating's data, professional training through CrescentRating Academy, destination marketing, and industry events including the Halal In Travel Global Summit.

HalalTrip is CrescentRating's consumer-facing sister platform, built for Muslim travelers. While CrescentRating works with destinations, hotels, and travel businesses (B2B), HalalTrip helps travelers directly with tools such as halal food listings, prayer time and qibla features, and travel inspiration. The two platforms share the same research foundation and mission.

Yes. CrescentRating is an affiliate member of UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) and has partnered with leading organizations, including a long-standing research partnership with Mastercard on the Global Muslim Travel Index. Details of our governance and partnerships are available on the Trust & Governance page.

Halal travel, also called Muslim-friendly travel, refers to travel products and services that cater to the faith-based needs of Muslim travelers. Core needs include halal food, prayer facilities, and water-friendly washrooms; broader considerations include Ramadan services and recreational facilities with privacy. See our glossary for definitions of key halal travel terms.

Yes. AIRA (AI Recommendation Auditor) is CrescentRating's trust layer for the AI era — it evaluates whether an AI travel assistant can discover, trust, and confidently recommend a Muslim-friendly establishment based on evidence that is actually public and machine-readable, such as a business's own website and CrescentRating's certification registry. As AI assistants increasingly sit between travelers and travel decisions, AIRA gives businesses and destinations a way to check and improve how visible and trustworthy they are to those systems.

The Crescent Rating is a globally recognized, independent rating standard that measures how well travel and hospitality services cater to Muslim travelers. Launched in 2008 as the world's first halal-friendly hotel rating system, it has since expanded to restaurants, attractions, venues, airports, travel packages, and more. Learn more about Ratings & Accreditation.

Crescent Ratings are available to hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, tourist attractions and theme parks, MICE venues and event spaces, airports and transportation hubs, activities and tour packages, and rental properties such as serviced apartments and villas. If your business serves travelers, it can likely be rated — contact us to confirm eligibility.

Hotels are rated on the services and facilities they provide for Muslim guests, assessed across areas including halal food options, prayer (salah) facilities, water-friendly washrooms, services during Ramadan, and the level of non-halal activities on the property. The overall Muslim-friendliness is expressed on a scale of one to seven, with seven being the highest.

The Crescent Rating scale runs from one to seven. A higher rating indicates a wider range of independently verified Muslim-friendly services and facilities — from basic provisions such as halal breakfast options and prayer mats at the lower end, to dedicated halal kitchens, prayer rooms, and Ramadan services at the upper end. The rating reflects Muslim-friendliness, not a general quality or star rating.

The rating process has four main steps. First, the business registers for a Crescent Rating. Second, it submits the required information about its services and facilities online. Third, CrescentRating independently verifies the information provided. Finally, once verification is complete, the Crescent Rating is granted and the business can display it. Start the process here.

A Crescent Rating gives a business independent, third-party verification of its Muslim-friendly services — allowing it to market confidently to Muslim travelers, one of the world's fastest-growing travel segments. For travelers, the rating provides assurance that a property's halal-friendly claims have been independently checked. Rated businesses are also listed in the CrescentRating member directory.

A Crescent Rating is valid for a defined accreditation period and must be renewed to remain current, since services and facilities change over time. The applicable validity and renewal terms are confirmed during registration. If a property makes significant changes to its Muslim-friendly services, it can request a re-assessment at any time.

Crescent Rating fees depend on the type and size of the business being rated — a single restaurant and an international airport are assessed very differently. For a quotation for your property or service, contact our accreditation team with some basic details about your business.

Yes. Rental homes, serviced apartments, villas, and bungalows can all obtain a Crescent Rating based on the Muslim-friendly services and facilities they provide, such as halal kitchen readiness, prayer amenities, and privacy features. The assessment follows the same independent verification process used for hotels.

CrescentRating partners with national and regional tourism organizations to build their Muslim travel market strategy end to end: market research and GMTI-based benchmarking, capability and capacity building for local industry, accreditation of key services, and destination marketing campaigns that reach Muslim travelers. Partners get this visibility through MFORT (Muslim-friendly Operations & Rating Tracker), CrescentRating's partner-facing platform that gives destination bodies like tourist boards a live view of hotel applications and ratings across their destination. See how we work with tourism boards.

CrescentRating helps destinations reach and win Muslim travelers through targeted campaigns, content, and activations — including campaigns delivered through the HalalTrip platform and its Muslim traveler audience. Marketing programs are typically built on GMTI insights, so destinations invest where the data shows the greatest opportunity. Learn more about destination marketing.

A destination improves its GMTI position by strengthening the areas the index measures — ease of access, internal and external communication, the environment for Muslim visitors, and the availability of Muslim-friendly services such as halal food and prayer facilities. CrescentRating's RIDA Impact Score offers a complementary read on a destination's progress, scoring it across Responsible, Immersive, Digital & Assured practices. CrescentRating's consultancy team works with tourism boards on gap assessments and multi-year roadmaps built on their GMTI scorecard.

CrescentRating's research and consultancy practice covers market sizing and forecasting, traveler behavior studies, destination gap assessments, halal travel strategy development, and custom research for governments, hotel groups, and financial institutions. Published work includes the GMTI, deep-dive market reports, and partner studies with organizations such as Mastercard.

The Global Muslim Travel Index benchmarks destinations worldwide each year using a consistent methodology, and coverage expands as new destinations develop their Muslim travel readiness. Tourism boards that want a deeper assessment than the published index can contact CrescentRating about a detailed destination scorecard.

The Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) is the leading annual benchmark of how well destinations cater to Muslim travelers, published by CrescentRating in partnership with Mastercard since 2015. The index ranks destinations worldwide and sizes the Muslim travel market, and is widely cited by governments, industry, and media. Explore the latest edition on the GMTI page.

The GMTI scores destinations using CrescentRating's ACES framework, which evaluates four areas: Access (connectivity and visa ease), Communication (outreach and digital presence for Muslim travelers), Environment (safety, arrivals, and enabling climate), and Services (halal food, prayer spaces, airports, and accommodation). Each area contains weighted criteria that roll up into a destination's overall score and rank.

The Muslim travel market is one of the fastest-growing segments in global tourism. CrescentRating and Mastercard research projects Muslim international arrivals to reach 262 million by 2030, with travel spend on the order of $310 billion. The latest figures, forecasts, and methodology are published in the annual GMTI report.

Beyond the GMTI, CrescentRating publishes deep-dive reports on specific themes and segments of the Muslim travel market — such as gastronomy, women travelers, digital behavior, and individual destination markets. Many are co-published with partners such as Mastercard and are available to download from the insights section.

CR MAPS is CrescentRating's data platform that gives destinations and businesses interactive access to the research behind the GMTI — destination scorecards, benchmarking against competitors, and trend data across index editions. It turns the annual report into a year-round planning tool. Learn more on the CR MAPS page.

The Muslim Travel Intent Tracker monitors where Muslim travelers are planning to go, drawing on traveler surveys and behavioral signals from the HalalTrip platform. It gives destinations and travel businesses an early, forward-looking view of demand — complementing the GMTI's annual supply-side benchmark.

Yes. Journalists, researchers, and students are welcome to cite CrescentRating's published research with attribution to “CrescentRating” (and “Mastercard-CrescentRating” for co-published reports such as the GMTI), including the report name and year. For interviews, data requests, or press materials, visit the newsroom or contact us.

CrescentRating Academy is the professional training arm of CrescentRating. It equips tourism boards, hotels, and travel businesses with the knowledge to serve Muslim travelers — covering halal travel fundamentals, faith-based service needs, and market insights — through online courses, in-person workshops, and certification programs.

Training programs are designed for anyone whose work touches Muslim travelers: tourism board staff, hotel and restaurant teams, airport and attraction operators, tour operators, and individual travel professionals building their expertise. Programs range from frontline service training to strategic courses for destination planners and leadership teams.

The Halal In Travel Global Summit is the leading annual gathering of the Muslim travel industry, organized by CrescentRating. The summit brings together tourism ministers, destination leaders, hospitality executives, and researchers for keynotes, market intelligence launches — including the annual GMTI release — and networking across the halal travel ecosystem.

The Halal In Travel Awards recognize destinations, businesses, and individuals that lead the industry in serving Muslim travelers. Presented during the Halal In Travel Global Summit, award categories span destinations, hotels, airports, attractions, and emerging segments of the market, based on CrescentRating's research and index data.

Registration details, dates, and the program for the next Halal In Travel Global Summit are published on the summit page. Prospective speakers can submit their topic and profile through the summit page or by contacting the events team — the agenda prioritizes data-led, practitioner perspectives on the Muslim travel market.

Destinations and brands can partner with the Halal In Travel Global Summit and other CrescentRating events through sponsorship tiers, exhibition space, and content partnerships. Sponsorship connects your organization with tourism boards, hospitality leaders, and decision-makers across the Muslim travel market. Contact us for the current partnership prospectus.

Crescent Rated hotels, restaurants, and other services are listed in the CrescentRating member directory, and rated properties display their Crescent Rating in their own marketing. For trip planning, the HalalTrip platform helps you discover Muslim-friendly hotels, halal food, and attractions in destinations worldwide.

HalalTrip is a travel platform and app for Muslim travelers, operated by the CrescentRating group. It helps travelers find halal food, mosques and prayer spaces, Muslim-friendly hotels, and destination guides, alongside tools such as prayer times, qibla direction, and in-flight prayer time calculation. HalalTrip is free for travelers at halaltrip.com.

Not necessarily. The Crescent Rating measures the range of Muslim-friendly services a property provides on a one-to-seven scale — a mid-range rating means good faith-based provisions within a mainstream property, while the highest ratings indicate properties operating largely or fully to halal standards. Always check the specific services listed with a property's rating for details such as halal kitchen certification.

If you know a hotel, restaurant, or attraction that serves Muslim travelers well and deserves recognition — or one you wish offered verified halal-friendly services — you can contact us with the details, or encourage the business to register directly through the Ratings & Accreditation page.

You can reach CrescentRating through the contact page for general inquiries, accreditation requests, research and consultancy, media, and event partnerships. The team is headquartered in Singapore and works with destinations and businesses worldwide.