Additional tourism products are needed in Brunei to drive visitor demand, with Royal Brunei Airlines forced to think laterally to stoke interest in the destination.
Speaking to Travel Today, the airline’s chief commercial and planning officer Karam Chand described the range of available product in the destination as “quite limited”.
“It limits what you can do,” he admitted. As a result, the last couple of decades have seen the airline forge a close relationship with Sabah Tourism to promote twin city stays.
“Borneo is very much a global brand, but people struggle with Brunei – they just don’t know about it. Many think it’s part of Africa,” Chand said.
“Brunei on its own has the challenge of product range and awareness so combining it with a twin city product just makes fantastic business sense for us.”
Sabah’s offer of diving, trekking and a broad range of accommodation options makes it an ideal partner for Brunei, he continued.
“That combined with Brunei can give people a totally different holiday,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chand insisted that the airline has experienced no decline in interest in travel to the destination as a result of the recent controversial introduction of hard-line Sharia penal law which prompted a high profile celebrity boycott of the Brunei-owned Dorchester hotel chain.
“It’s quietened down and we’re not seeing any negative impact on our business as a result,” he said.
