CheapFlightsFinder’s data could be interpreted to mean that Muslim travelers now feel safer visiting the U.K. than they do visiting the U.S.
LONDON – Muslims are staying away from the U.S. in droves following the election of Donald Trump. In fact, in the fourteen days since the U.S. presidential election, searches for U.S.-bound flights from Arab countries are down by a staggering 70% compared to October's numbers, reports CheapFlightsFinder.
Where would Muslim travelers now prefer to spend their vacation time? The U.K., Turkey, and Malaysia, all of which are seeing spikes in CheapFlightsFinder.com searches originating from primarily Islamic countries.
"We obviously can't speak to each traveler's reasoning for searching flights to a particular country, but we can say for certain what the data is showing, which is that in the last two weeks, the vast majority of Muslim travelers appear to have decided against flying to the United States," said CheapFlightsFinder CEO Shahab Siddiqui. "Is there a correlation to Donald Trump being elected president? The numbers seem to suggest that."
While the majority of Turkish and Malaysian citizens practice Islam, the same cannot be said of the U.K. Could that country's recent spike in airfare searches originating from Muslim countries be related to the U.S. elections? Perhaps. In January of this year, the Pew Research Center estimated that approximately 1% of the American population was Muslim in 2015, while approximately 4.8% of the U.K.'s population was Muslim that same year. Though Islam is practiced by a pronounced minority of citizens in both countries, CheapFlightsFinder's data could be interpreted to mean that Muslim travelers now feel safer visiting the U.K. than they do visiting the U.S.
"The U.S. travel industry could be in for a bit of a depression in the weeks and months to come, particularly until the world has a better sense of what America will look like under a Trump administration and whether that might affect travelers visiting from other countries," Siddiqui speculated. "We plan to keep a close watch on the data here at CheapFlightsFinder and will continue to report on trends as we see them developing."
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
