Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - As more and more Japanese tourists seek new destinations they have yet to visit, Brunei stands a "big chance" at attracting this particular market segment, it was announced at a tourism seminar yesterday.

From 2000 to 2007, "dream destinations" such as Hawaii and Guam lost tourists from Japan while "fresh destinations" such as China and Malaysia gained popularity.

Fumihiro Sakakibara, the president of Mile Post Consultants Inc, a marketing planning and public relations company that specialises in international tourism and Japanese travel markets, said that Japanese tourists are looking for new, fresh destinations and are growing tired of the traditionally popular destinations.

"There has been a shift in the Japanese travel market. Countries such as Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam have seen an increase in tourists. Brunei

can be one of these fresh destinations," he said during the Japanese Tourism Seminar held yesterday at the Kiulap Plaza Hotel.

Sakakibara went on to say that Brunei's tourism industry's main challenge was the lack of promotion, which was stopping the country from being better known as a tourist destination.

He added that Malaysia had a significant number of Japanese tourists visiting the country over the years and said that Brunei could receive a similar response. "Next door (Malaysia), so many people are knocking on the door, so why not here?" he asked.

He said that if marketing strategies and promotion were improved, he saw the possibility of "huge tourism market potential" for Brunei. "You can step up tourism by 100-fold... Brunei has a big chance," he said. Sakakibara added that tourists were increasingly opting for short-stay holidays. Therefore, Brunei was a very suitable destination as Japanese tourists usually spend only a week in the Sultanate, he said.

Japanese tourists are experienced travellers, and so they know how to judge a tourism product, and whether the tour guide was confident on what he was speaking about, he said.

He also quoted a survey saying that the average Japanese tourist has travelled 14.4 times.

The tour operator said that he expected the market share for repeat travellers to increase. However, the younger generation is less inclined to travel, causing the market to shift towards elderly and senior travellers.

According to a survey carried out by the Japan Tourism Marketing Company, more than 60 per cent of travellers' preferred purpose of travel was to see the natural scenery. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times