Tourist arrivals to Brunei record 18 per cent surge

|     Azlan Othman     |

BRUNEI Darussalam has registered an 18 per cent increase in tourist arrivals through the Brunei International Airport (BIA) last year with 258,955 tourists visiting the Sultanate compared to 218,809 arrivals in 2016.

This achievement has exceeded the 10 per cent growth target projected for last year, recording the highest number of international tourist arrivals after 2011, the Tourism Development Department of the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism said yesterday in a press statement.

Over the last three years, tourist arrival growth has showed an upward trend, contributing to the development of the country’s tourism industry with 2017 ending on a strong note on the back of a 18.3 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth, the ministry said.

The growth was mainly attributed to the consistently high travel demand from the main market areas since January 2017; the introduction and enhancement of several tourism products; continuous increase in air connectivity by Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) and Lucky Air with the introduction of new services from South Korea and China; and improved travel facilitation such as visa on arrival and multiple entry visa for the nationalities of China and Taiwan, the statement noted.

Furthermore, tourist arrivals from the main source markets have shown significant improvement from 2016 with the Far East market contributing the highest y-o-y growth of 34 per cent, followed by the Long Haul market (16 per cent), Asean market (11.8 per cent) and Australia and New Zealand markets (both 5.8 per cent).

Another contributing factor to the solid performance in 2017 was a slew of events held in conjunction with the Golden Jubilee Celebration of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam’s Accession to the Throne on October 5, 2017.

Malaysia was the top contributor to tourist arrivals in 2016 due to its easy air accessibility and proximity with a 23.2 per cent share (24.8 per cent in 2016), followed by China at 20.2 per cent (18.7 per cent in 2016); Philippines at 8.9 per cent (7.8 per cent in 2016); Indonesia at 8.7 per cent (9.5 per cent in 2016); and Singapore at 5.8 per cent (6.6 per cent in 2016).

In total, the top five countries have contributed the majority portion of international tourist arrivals into the country for 2017 at 66.8 per cent.

South Korea was one of the top performing countries in 2017 with a y-o-y growth of 145.1 per cent – from 3,551 arrivals in 2016 to 8,705 arrivals last year.

Asean region remained the largest source market in 2017 with a 50.3 per cent share (53.2 per cent in 2016), followed by Far East market with 27.1 per cent (23.9 per cent in 2016), Long Haul markets such as Europe and the Middle East with 10.9 per cent share (11.1 per cent in 2016), while Australia and New Zealand markets contributed 3.9 per cent each (4.3 per cent in 2016).

According to the department, the main purpose of visiting Brunei Darussalam in 2017 was leisure and holiday with a share of 44.2 per cent (42.8 per cent in 2016). About 13.6 per cent travelled for business purposes (17.1 per cent in 2016), followed by visiting friends and relatives (VFR) at 10.3 per cent (11.6 per cent in 2016), in transit at 8.9 per cent (10.7 per cent in 2016); government purposes at 2.5 per cent (2.9 per cent in 2016), exhibitions at 0.6 per cent (0.6 per cent in 2016), others at 9.9 per cent (11.0 per cent in 2016), and not specified at 10 per cent (3.3 per cent in 2016).

China and Malaysia remained the main contributors to the leisure and holiday market with a share of 39.2 per cent and 15.7 per cent respectively.

In addition to the total tourist arrivals by air, a total of 4,057,029 international visitor arrivals were also recorded at other Immigration control posts in 2017.

The average length of stay for hotels in 2016 and 2017 remained the same at 2.2 days. Whereas, the average hotel occupancy rate for 2017 was 41.2 per cent compared to 39.3 per cent in the year before.

For accommodation in 2017, there were a total of 87 establishments ranging from luxury resorts (for example The Empire Hotel & Country Club) and international-standard hotels (for example Radisson Hotel) to business standard and budget facilities, lodgings, apartments, guest houses and homestays.

The total number of hotels, resort and apartments were 52, followed by 16 homestays, 16 guest houses and rest houses and three government guest houses.

Meanwhile, in 2017, the total number of rooms and beds available were 4,455 and 6,226 respectively. In 2016, the total number of establishments was recorded at 83, with 4,311 rooms and 6,044 beds.

In 2017, the total number of registered travel agents under the Tourism Development Department was 65 compared to 60 in 2016. All travel agents offer inbound and outbound activities.

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