Brunei eyes Arab tourists

By Azlan Othman

Brunei is eyeing tourists from the Middle Eastern countries, just like Malaysia which is said to have the right ingredients.

A lot of interest was shown during the recently concluded Arabian Travel Market in Dubai and Bahrain International Travel Exchange, the CEO of Brunei Tourism Board, Sheikh Jamaluddin Sheikh Mohamed who led the Brunei delegation, told the Bulletin.

"We are working hard to quietly bring in the Arab tourists who like to travel during summer. Brunei can be an addition to the Malaysian market. There's not much issue on alcohol and the Arabs like to bring their family to enjoy a clean, fun and leisure experience," he said.

Touching on the success of the two trips to the Middle East, he added, "In total, more than 30 business contacts were made during the exhibition ranging from tour operators, travel agents, marketing representatives, media and the rest were mainly from the general public".

"A number of interesting contacts were made in terms of advertising medium such as in the upmarket magazines, family readers' digests as well as magazines distributed to not only the local Arabian market but also to the expatriate community in the Gulf."

"These advertising opportunities should be able to increase awareness of Brunei's image and there was a travel channel broadcast in the Gulf which offered to do a feature on Brunei."

Sheikh Jamaluddin added that prior to this event, they (Middle Eastern tourists) asked us, 'What is there to do in Brunei?' But now they ask, 'How much does it cost to go to Brunei'," citing the inquiries made during the travel mart.

And to put words into action, about 20 incentive group familiarisation trips will be made to Brunei during the busy month of July, which also coincides with His Majesty's birthday celebrations. "We have got to impress them (incentive group) for us to sell Brunei to the world". There are over 40 familiarisation trips organised to visit Brunei in a year.

After the 9/11 incident, the Arab tourists are now moving to visit this region, especially Malaysia. "Hoteliers, frontliners and restaurants need to understand the peculiarity of the Arab market. The Arabs like to shop and stay for a longer period. We have got to have a joint promotion with our Malaysian counterparts to attract them to Brunei."

"We have to work hard, prepare well and this effort should not just be shouldered by the Tourism Department but also those in charge of the visa facilitation and taxi operators, drivers and health inspectors, in the case of the cleanliness of the restaurants."

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin