Brunei Takes Big Leap Into World Of Tourism
By Achong Tanjong

Bandar Seri Begawan – Brunei is breaking out of its shell and is having a serious look around what is happening in the world of tourism.

And recently, the Brunei Tourism Unit, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources with the cooperation of Royal Brunei Airlines, hotels, tourism agencies as well as tourism players in the country participated actively to promote  Brunei to other countries in the world.

Brunei, along with several other tourism players participated in the Asia Pacific Travel Mart (PATA) fair in Singapore as well as at the 1st JATA World Tourism Congress and Expo in Yokohama, Japan.

This is the sixth time that Brunei has participated in PATA, which is participated by more than 50 countries including 190 sellers and 213 buyers. But for a change Brunei is starting to attract attention from the industry.

Brunei Tourism officials, Rosdi Haji Abd. Aziz and Haji Suhip Haji Mohammad who manned the exhibition booth at the travel fair received encouraging response especially among members of media and travel magazine as well as potential buyers.

They also received a keen interest from buyers as far as from Russia, Germany, Korea, India, USA and other European countries that wanted to know more about Brunei, to increase their market strategy.

Also participating at the exhibition was The Empire Hotel & Country Club. According to Tourism Officer, Rosdi Haji Abd. Aziz, Brunei’s participation in the exhibition was to ensure exposure of the country and to promote Brunei as a safe holiday destination, which provides eco-tourism, golf and scuba-diving packages.

Haji Rosdi said the most frequently asked question was about direct flights to Brunei from the traveller’s respective countries. Many were also interested about products that Brunei offered such as golf and scuba diving packages.

Another objective of the participation at the PATA Travel Mart 2003 was to strengthen and continue promotional efforts of Brunei Darussalam as a unique and favourable tourist destination in the Asia Pacific market.

He said participation at the PATA 2003 was up by 30 per cent from the previous year. The next PATA Travel Mart 2004 will be held in Thailand.

Meanwhile, Brunei also participated in the 1st JATA World Tourism Congress and Expo in Japan. The Brunei Darussalam delegation to the expo was represented by the local travel industry, comprising Royal Brunei Airlines, Brunei Hotel, Freme Travel Services, Travel Trade Agencies and Century Travel.

According to Tourism Officer, Kartini Haji Kabri who participated in the expo, the objective was to continue promotional efforts of Brunei to the Japanese market. A total of 665 participants from the regions of Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Americas took part in the expo.

Kartini added that, with the threat of SARS affecting the region subsiding, Brunei has embarked on a campaign to regain the confidence of its major market, which includes Japan. The exhibition, she said was also one of the platforms complementing their promotional efforts in the Japanese mainstream markets. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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