NEW government projects in Brunei involving oil drilling, deep-sea hub development and oil refinery are expected to spur corporate travel and meetings to the sultanate.
Anthony Lim, managing director of Anthony Tours in Brunei, notes that Petronas Malaysia is already “sending their people in”, adding he has high hopes of more inbound MICE business due to these works.
Inbound MICE business has already grown 30 per cent to date for Anthony Tours. Buoyed by the growth, the agency – which started its business as an outbound player – is expanding the inbound division by appointing a commercial director-inbound, Nordin Besar, former product manager of Golden Beach Holidays (now Royal Brunei Holidays).
“We just successfully handled a 600-pax military tattoo (military drum performance) with groups coming from the UK, Oman and Singapore, among other countries,” he said.
Another opportunity Lim is eyeing, apart from BT-MICE from the oil industry, is the school groups market, both inbound and outbound.
Said Lim: “In good or hard times, this market travels.
“Brunei has a lot of culture, history and natural environs that make it ideal as a ‘training’ ground for such groups. I see that the student and teacher conference market is growing.”
