| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 28/08/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 36 |
| Copyright: Other |
Tourism promotion by Linsey McNeill
Brunei targets UK with advertising campaign
First sales drive to be launched next month
UNTIL now, Brunei has been largely bypassed by tour operators who have used it only as a gateway to the rest of the island of Borneo but the country’s tourism chiefs are making new efforts to promote it as a holiday destination.Next year has been declared as the first Visit Brunei Year, and September will herald the launch of the country’s first ever advertising campaign in the UK.
Brunei Tourism director-general Sheikh Jamaluddin Bin Sheikh Mohamed said the campaign, which will be a joint effort with national carrier Royal Brunei, will include advertisements in newspapers and on London buses and taxis.
“This will be a big promotion to set the ball rolling,” said Sheikh Jamaluddin.
“It is the first time we have advertised Brunei because now we really want to push it as a holiday destination.”
One of the reasons operators have shunned Brunei is the lack of tourist hotels in the destination – which caters mainly for business travellers.
But Sheikh Jamaluddin said the opening of the country’s first resort hotel next month should persuade operators that the destination is worthy of inclusion into their future programmes.
The 543-room government-owned hotel, The Empire, will include a lagoon-style swimming pool, a man-made beach and a floodlit golf course.
Accommodation will be in chalets and villas in landscaped grounds.
The hotel will stage a grand opening ceremony in January when Brunei hosts the Association of South East Asian Nations Tourism Forum, which is expected to attract about a dozen UK tour operators.
Sheikh Jammaluddin said the Tourism Forum would give Brunei a chance to show off the hotel and its main tourist attractions to British operators in the hope they will add Brunei to their brochures.
“We want them to see that Brunei is a nice place to relax but we are not targeting mass tourism,” he said. “We are a country of only 300,000 people, so we only want a limited number of visitors.”
Premier Holidays, which is one of only a few UK operators to sell Brunei, said visitors rarely spent more than a couple of days in the country.
Product manager David Carlaw said:”We feature it mainly as a side trip from the rest of Borneo.
“At the moment the best hotel is the Sheraton but that is only a four star.
“There are no beach resorts and there aren’t enough attractions to keep people there for very long,” he said.
factfile
brunei
Cost of living: very reasonable. Hotels range from budget, starting at around £27, to five star, at around £70 twin share. Malay-style hawker food is plentiful and cheap.
New heights: the country is keen to attract specialist markets