Tourism sector set to turn a new leaf

Things are beginning to look better for the nation's tourism and retail sectors with recent developments pertaining to the "open door" policy in the aviation market. The most recent of which is the entry of Manila-based Cebu Pacific Air which is now flying the Manila-Bandar Seri Begawan route twice a week. On the day of the low-cost carrier's inaugural flight to Brunei, tourism and aviation officials expressed confidence that this augurs well for Brunei Darussalam's aim of seeing tourist arrivals shooting up this year by 30%.

Each new airline that flies to the Sultanate widens the overall picture of connectivity for a country that has yet to fully optimise its potential in attracting visitors interested in experiencing the charm of Brunei Darussalam. Tourism and aviation officials have said there has been a number of airlines that have been approved for servicing routes to the Sultanate over the past few years. Once these carriers make use of their entitlements, Brunei's connectivity will further increase, giving the tourism sector a boost.

Brunei's objective to welcome more visitors is one reason for its willingness to work closely with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in jointly improving regional connectivity. Not only does transport links allow more people from across the region to experience each other's culture, they also open up more opportunities for trade and investment.

These promising developments should prod the participants in the tourism sector to work more closely in developing packages that will delight visitors who have heard of Brunei as a tropical paradise, and its natural features that have remained unspoilt by economic development. We need to give them reasons to spread the word, give them an eco-tourism experience that would make them talk about how a visit to Brunei is worth the money.

Tourist arrival numbers are very likely to soar in the next few years, but this should not be viewed as an end in itself. We need to look at it as the means to press our pins firmly on travel maps for people who prefer destinations off the beaten track.

Tourists can be very easy to disappoint. In fact, a destination can only disappoint a tourist once. There's no second chance. And when you fail to impress them the first time, it would be difficult to get them to come back or to recommend Brunei to their friends.

Many of us have come to terms with Brunei being just a side trip for people visiting Malaysia. But we do not have to settle for anything less than being a destination where visitors can have a truly Southeast Asian cultural experience. And one where the adventurous can have their fill of eco-tourism delights in the jungles that form part of what has made us proud of being counted among the world's top 10 heavily forested countries. We also need to have a clearer idea as to what exactly makes visitors include Brunei in their plans. Are those reasons enough to make them consider the Sultanate more than just a side trip? A better understanding of how tourists view the country will be instructive of how much we need to do to keep the influx of tourists steady, and support the tourism and its allied sectors the health of which will in no small way contribute to our aim of reducing dependence on oil and gas.