Brunei To Give Updates On Tourism Development At ATF In Phnom Penh

Brunei Tourism Chief Sheikh Jamaluddin Sheikh Mohamed will announce that the Sultanate will begin work on its second Tourism Masterplan during the upcoming Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) 2011 which will be held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from today until January 21.

In a phone interview recently, the Tourism Development Department Director shared that Brunei Tourism will also update the forum on the country's latest developments, such as the homestay programmes and recent opening of the Times Square Hotel near the airport, in the bid to draw more tourists to Brunei.Sheikh Jamaluddin is expected to share these developments during a press conference scheduled for January 21 during the ATF 2011.However.

 Further details of the developments of the masterplan could not be disclosed at press time.During a previous interview in October, the director said that they had appointed Accenture in partnership with local IT solutions company BAG Networks to formulate the new tourism masterplan.It replaces the country's previous masterplan, which was drafted in 1999 and dictated the tourism industry's development for a 10-year period, expiring last year.

He had said then during the World Tourism Conference in Kota Kinabalu that the new plan will cover the next five years and is likely to lead to the re-branding of the current Brunei Tourism logo, which features the word "Brunei" embodied by pictures taken around the Sultanate."We've been having this (current) branding since 1999, almost 10 plus years, so it's time to make a change," Sheikh Jamaluddin had said during the conference.

A United Nations World Tourism Organisation representative had also said that the international body will also be assisting the Sultanate in developing the masterplan.The annual ATF, which Brunei hosted last year, is the "largest tourism forum" that Brunei Tour-ism actively participates in.

"As usual, we will be bringing along a few of our stakeholders," Sheikh Jamaluddin told The Brunei Times yesterday, mentioning national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines and a number of local tour operators among the representatives from the country.The ATF is divided into three main events: the senior official and ministerial meetings, the Asean Tourism Conference and Travex (Travel Exchange) 2011.

"We have our booth (in Travex 2011) as well as four booths for the tour operators and RBA. This is where we will meet people and hope to secure some new contracts," the director said.A press release issued by the ATF 2011 organisers in December said that Travex 2011 had registered an "overwhelming response" as more than 500 booths were sold out by the end of October 2010.

Some 1,000 buyers have "registered their interest to source at the event", with a majority (55 per cent) of them coming from the Asia Pacific region, 37 per cent from Europe and the remaining eight per cent accounting for the rest of the world.Meanwhile, 1,600 delegates are expected to attend this year's forum."ATF 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of this event since its inauguration in Malaysia in 1981," the organisers said.

Source = brudirect