Visiting other places as a tourist has always been exciting. People do it for a couple of reasons such as relaxation, shopping or for the desire to visit other places.There are many reasons for Brunei's small tourist industry which lead to the small number of tourist visiting Brunei each year. Some of the reasons are stated below:

• INFRASTRUCTURES

  

  One of the main reason is the lack of tourist facilities that are available in Brunei. Although some of the facilities are available here, the number is still quite few as compared to other country. These facilities include proper air-conditioned tour buses, hotels of suitable standards, pleasure boats and others.

Brunei is a small country that provides very limited places of interest such as lacks of famous monuments, scenic attractions and wide stretches of fine beaches. Brunei also need to build more tourist information centre where tourist can find more about interesting places around Brunei.

 

 

• PROMOTION

Efforts done are not enough to promote Brunei as a tourist destination. Advertisement about Brunei as a tourist destination are only shown to few countries and hence less exposure to the outside world.

 

 

 

• CLIMATE

Weather's not much of a consideration when heading for Brunei - whenever you go it's bound to be warm and wet. September to January is the official wet season, when things are even warmer and wetter. Things tend to close down during Ramadan, when all Muslims must fast between dawn and dusk for a month, so it's worth checking if your visit will fall in this period.

 

       

• LOCATION

If we look at the world map, we can't hardly find Brunei because it's geographical size is too small. That is one of the reason why Brunei has less tourist. People doesn't realize the existence of Brunei due to its geographical position. It is located on a Borneo island with it's total area only 5,765 square kilometers.

 

 

• CLIMATE

    Weather's not much of a consideration when heading for Brunei - whenever you go it's bound to be warm and wet. The climate is hot with high humidity and heavy rainfall. There is no distinct wet season, rainfall occurs throughout the year, but is heaviest between September and January. Temperatures are usually between 24 and 31 degrees Celsius and with the average humidity at 79% this tropical country is a pretty warm and humid place to be!! The tourists, especially from the countries with four seasons will find it difficult to wander around Brunei if they happen to visit during this time of the year.

• MONEY AND COSTS   

    Brunei's accommodation can be fiercely expensive. There is only one budget accommodation option in the country, but it cannot always be relied upon for a bed. Mid-range accommodation is a bit of a disaster, though some top-end hotels are not that much more expensive than the equivalent in Malaysia. Transport and food are more expensive than in Peninsular Malaysia, but not outrageously so.

• PLACES OF ATTRACTION

   

  • Kampong Ayer

         A tourist should not miss the opportunity to visit the water village or sometimes called the 'Venice of the East'. Here, in the midst of the city centre lies an intricate maze of housing, schools and mosques, all built on wooden stilts to lift them high above the water. But to our disappointment this place especially the river is polluted with the rubbish floating around. It is such an eye-sore.

     

   

  • Jerudong Park Playground     

       It is the largest amusement park here where people could take a ride and play games.  But beware of the information given on the internet. A few of the websites concerning about this place still says that it is fee-free. Well, it's not anymore. People have to pay for the rides and even for the entrance. The issue here is some would find that the fee charged for each ride is expensive (B$4 for a ride and B$15 if you want to play as much as you want!).

     

   

  • Tasek Merimbun

        The Tasek Merimbun Heritage Park in the Tutong District can be considered a major attraction for locals and foreigners alike. It is however very saddening to see this place slowly forgotten by the relevant authorities in the fast pace of development. The amenities that have been provided are now deteriorating, especially the bridge that connect visitors to a small island in the middle of the lake.

        Another sad fact is the condition of the lake, where some parts of it have been littered by sharp objects used during the construction of the bridges. Some of the huts built long ago for visitors have also been left without any maintenance. There are now no more rooftops on some of these huts, while the benches inside a hut built on the small island in the middle of the lake cannot be used anymore. Vandals also have damaged the public telephone and toilets provided at the park.

        The loss of appeal at the park had resulted in the declining number of visitors. Some time ago, locals and tourists would frequently visit this heritage park. It was a main attraction during holidays for families to come and have their picnics at the park.

         The park is believed to be holding some historical and natural value. Leaving it to deteriorate would mean forgetting all these valuables assets for our growing tourism industry and probably for our future interests.

     

  • Shopping Complex

            There aren't many vast shopping complexes in Brunei. The latest one and the newest one is in Gadong, The Mall. Before The Mall existed, the most famous is the Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Shopping Complex at the centre of Bandar Seri Begawan. Most of the newest and frequently visited shopping complexes concentrated on the city only, although just recently such shopping complexes are now built in other districts. But they aren't open yet. So if the tourists decide to go to the other districts, they won't find that the entertainments are as those in the city.

• OTHER REASONS

Brunei face stiff competition from neighboring countries and also from around South East Asia with their well-established tourism development programs. Different country adopt different strategies and effort in trying to lure tourist to their own country.

 Lack of management entrepreneurial expertise among the locals to enable them to participate in the ownership and management of the tourism -related enterprises. Little interest by commercial sector - partly because easy money to be made with general economic boom in the country. Only few firms in Bandar Seri Begawan are engaged in taking tourist around.

Inadequate coordination among government agencies directly or indirectly involved in tourism.

 

Although the number of tourist visiting Brunei is quite small, the government had already allocated a large amount of money under the National Development Plan for improving and upgrading the nation's existing tourism infrastructure.