Saturday, October 20, 2007

Brunei for 'Best of Borneo' in London


By George Francis

MIRI - The "Best of Borneo" tourism packages to be unveiled in next month's World Travel Mart in London will comprise products of Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak said CEO of Sarawak Tourism Board Gracie Geikie.

The composition of three territories, she termed as "golden triangle" in producing the packages to the new markets would augur well for tourism development; thus Borneo could potentially become a popular tourist destination.

"At the recent Borneo tourism conference, it was agreed that the Best of Borneo should not just be Sabah and Sarawak, but include Brunei - a country rich in culture and heritage - under its tourism tag - a Kingdom of Unexpected Treasures with which Royal Brunei Airlines flies to most destinations. So Brunei is very important to the Best of Borneo," said Gracie in an interview with Weekend.

In the packages, she said, Sarawak and Sabah would include promoting attractions in both states' rural areas, involving Malaysian Airlines.

"This is especially for a package to Mulu - a world heritage site which for the past one year was badly affected when the AirAsia owned FlyAsian Xpress (FAX) operated the rural air services (RAS) under the government's flight rationalisation exercise."

She said the London promotion is the right time offering packages of the two states' interior destinations with the interlining and connectivity problems solved with the launch of MASWings on Oct 1, a subsidiary of MAS, taking over from FAX.

MASWings under MAS is connected to 200 plus partner airlines and 16,000 travel agents worldwide.

"So with rural air problems solved, we've to synergise our marketing and promotion together. We can't just leave Brunei out. We must now accelerate to diversify our tourism to the world markets," she said.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin Weekend

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