Brunei rises as preferred travel destination

• Jun 24, 2019

VARIOUS statistics and studies pertaining to Brunei Darussalam were released in May, covering areas including population, economic growth, trade and tourism.

For the tourism sector in Brunei, a milestone was achieved in 2018 with the highest number of tourist arrivals ever recorded, as international tourist arrivals grew by 7.4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) from 258,955 tourists in 2017 to 278,136 tourists in 2018.

As was reported on May 8, 2019, according to the Tourism Development Department under the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism, the achievement surpassed the initial projection of 277,774 tourists for 2018.

Since 2015, international tourist arrivals have continued to show a positive trend towards the development of tourism in Brunei Darussalam. The growth of 7.4 per cent y-o-y in 2018 was mainly due to the consistent impact of high travel demand from the four main markets since 2017.

The Far East market contributed the highest growth at 17.8 per cent y-o-y, followed by Australia and New Zealand market at 10.9 per cent y-o-y, Long Haul market at 2.9 per cent y-o-y and ASEAN market at 2.4 per cent y-o-y.

China ranked first among the top 10 visitor countries in 2018, due to the increase of air connectivity from newly scheduled flights with a 23.6 per cent share, followed by Malaysia at a 21.4 per cent share, Indonesia at a 9.9 per cent share, the Philippines at a 8.0 per cent share and Singapore at a 5.1 per cent share.
In total, the top five countries have contributed the majority portion of international tourist arrivals into Brunei for 2018 at a 67.9 per cent share of total tourist arrivals. It was also stated that, among the top performing countries in 2018, Switzerland has shown significant improvement in terms of growth and has tripled the number of arrivals by 300.5 per cent (y-o-y) to reach 1,682 arrivals last year, from 420 arrivals in 2017.

The ASEAN market remained the largest source market for 2018, at a 47.9 per cent share, followed by the Far East market at 29.7 per cent share, Long Haul market such as Europe, the Middle East and America at 10.6 per cent share, while Australia and New Zealand markets both contributed at 4.0 per cent share.

Meanwhile, according to the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) in its ASEAN+3 Regional Economic Outlook (AREO) 2019 report, Brunei Darussalam’s economic growth is expected to be 2.1 per cent this year and two per cent next year.

As was reported on May 5 the AMRO’s projection was similar to what they forecast late last year, when their officials visited Brunei Darussalam for the Annual Consultation Visit to the country.

The mission was led by AMRO Lead Economist Dr Siu Fung Yiu, while Director Dr Junhong Chang and Chief Economist Dr Hoe Ee Khor participated in several policy meetings.

It was shared that discussions focussed on the prospects for growth, measures to improve fiscal discipline, soundness of the banking sector, and progress in economic diversification.

In May it was also reported that total trade increased by 6.8 per cent to BND1,038.9 million in February 2019 compared to February 2018.

According to the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE), Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE), total exports increased y-o-y by 8.1 per cent to BND701.9 million.

The increase was supported mainly by 10.8 per cent increase in the export of Crude Oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Total imports increased by 4.3 per cent to BND337.0 million.

The report stated that the five main import commodities were Machinery and Transport Equipment (40.7 per cent), followed by Manufactured Goods (19.2 per cent), Food (12.1 per cent), Chemicals (9.1 per cent) and Mineral Fuels (9.1 per cent).

By End Use category, imports of Intermediate Goods comprised 58.3 per cent of the total imports followed by imports of Capital goods (34.0 per cent) and Consumption Goods (7.7 per cent).

The main export market for Brunei Darussalam in February 2019 was Japan (51.2 per cent) followed by Australia (15.3 per cent) and Malaysia (8.6 per cent).

Meanwhile, for imports by trading partners, the highest share was from the People’s Republic of China (30.4 per cent), followed by Malaysia (16.7 per cent) and Singapore (16.1 per cent).

Statistics pertaining to the country’s population were also released in May. As was reported on May 28, the mid year population estimate of Brunei Darussalam for 2018 was 442,400 persons compared to 429,500 persons in 2017, representing a growth of three percent.

According to JPKE, the population was made up of 233,400 males (52.8 percent) and 209,000 females (47.2 percent).

It was shared that the compilation for estimates is based on the final data of the Population and Housing Census Update (KBPP) 2016 and incorporating the major components of population change, that is births and deaths for natural increase, and net migration.

In addition, out of the overall total population last year, Brunei citizens accounted for the largest share of 74 per cent (327,400 persons), while the shares of the permanent residents and temporary residents were 7.5 per cent (33,200 persons) and 18.5 per cent (81,800 persons) respectively.

The most populated district was the Brunei-Muara District with 69.4 per cent (307,000 persons) of the total population. This was followed by the Belait District (16.5 per cent or 73,200 persons), the Tutong District (11.6 per cent or 51,300 persons), and the Temburong District (2.5 per cent or 10,900 persons).

From the age distribution aspect, about 20.7 per cent (91,600 persons) of the population were below 15 years of age, 74.7 per cent (330,600 persons) were in the working age group of 15-64 years and 4.6 per cent (20,200 persons) were aged 65 years and over.

The median age in 2018 was 30.4 years compared to 30.3 years in 2017.

It was also shared that Malays with 65.7 per cent (290,700 persons) of the total population formed the largest community in the country. The racial groups of Chinese and others comprised 10.3 per cent (45,600 persons) and 24 per cent (106,100 persons) of the population respectively.

Source: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/brunei-rises-preferred-travel-destination/