THE Tourism Development Department aims to increase the current number
of tourist arrivals and tourism revenue by 50 per cent in 2015 through its
Tourism Masterplan, said its Acting Director yesterday.
Referring to monthly and
quarterly data for 2012 in the United Nations World Tourism Organisation
(UNWTO) World Tourism Barometer, Mariani Hj Sabtu said that international
tourist arrivals worldwide grew at a rate of five per cent with a forecasted
annual growth of 3.3 per cent from 2010 to 2030.
This translates to an average
increase of about 43 million a year, with the ASEAN region alone expected to
welcome approximately 107 million international tourists by 2015, she said in
her opening remarks during an opening ceremony of a national workshop on 'Gap
Analysis on Implementation of MRA on Tourism Professionals and Feasibility
Study for the Establishment of a Regional Secretariat for ASEAN Tourism
Professionals'.
"At the home front, Brunei
has completed her Tourism Masterplan that sets the strategic direction towards
achieving 50 per cent increase in the number of visitors and in the tourism
revenue," she said.
She added that the implementation
of the Masterplan is also expected to create more than 2,000 jobs by 2015.
In an interview with The Brunei
Times, Mariani said that the number of tourists arriving into the country
stands at just over 248,000 as of today.
"But now we want to have an
additional 50 per cent by 2015. So that's a very conservative estimates, a
figure that we are comfortable with the product packages that we want to roll
out by 2015," she said.
This could calculate into an
estimated 370,000 tourists by 2015, the acting director related.
Mariani said that this target
number of tourist arrivals can be achieved through the department's Tourism
Masterplan where a total of 69 projects had been identified under two main
clusters and its marketing representatives overseas in China and Australia.
"We already have agents in
China and we have specific targets with them and they have helped create
avenues for us to achieve some of the numbers that we are aiming for. We have
also appointed an agent in Australia. That is also our means of getting more
tourists into Brunei and help marketing tourism products," she said.
The two clusters are 'Nature' and
'Islamic and Heritage', Mariani elaborated.
"Supposedly, this is
something that tourists are looking for at the moment, this is from ground and
market trend research that our consultants have done, this is the area a lot of
tourists are looking for, especially the Australian tourists," she said.
It was previously reported at the
Eighth Legislative Council (LegCo) session in March this year that the
Masterplan was completed to raise the tourism industry in Brunei.
With the masterplan, which is
prepared in cooperation with government agencies and stakeholders, one the
objectives is to determine the strength factors evident in the country to
expand and develop the tourism industry.
On the 69 projects that have been
identified by the masterplan to be developed and expanded, the minister said
that these included upgrading museums, forming an arts and handicraft
association, establishing a handicraft centre, building a sanctuary for
proboscis monkeys, training tourist guides, increasing tourist facilities at Kg
Senukoh as well as the building of Kg Ayer Cultural and Tourism Gallery in its
second phase.
When asked when will the
Masterplan be launched and implemented, she said "it would not be launched
all at once but rather over time and in comprehensive packages".
The national workshop was held as
follow up programmes towards achieving the goals set in the ASEAN Mutual
Recognition Agreement (MRA), by identifying the required minimum standards for
tourism professionals.
FITRI SHAHMINAN
The Brunei Times
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