Come and visit us, sometime.

I have spent days pondering upon this article , striving to reach a completely objective opinion, free of scepticism. But the statements such as the following make that quite a feat.

"We were just toying with the idea of hosting it next year. It was not officially endorsed by the Tourism Board. We called 2008 as celebrating Brunei 2008-09." - Sheikh Jamaluddin, CEO, Brunei Tourism Board

Let's tear this apart for a while, shall we? I, for one, am of the impression that one "toys around with ideas" in initial planning stages. But can we reasonably accept this excuse, yes, EXCUSE with three more months to 2008? There are only two logical possibilities here:

1. Visit Brunei Year really, honestly wasn't pipelined with 2008 in mind. We, the overzealous public, blew it out of proportion. But even if we did, is it not his department, which ultimately equates to him, to have corrected us from the very beginning?

2. 2008 was a target year.
The good people at the Tourism Board did not achieve that deadline. This is somewhat acceptable. Sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to work out. What is NOT acceptable is that Mr CEO decides that it's time for damage control, his course of action - tell us that it was never "officially endorsed" anyway. This, afterall, is the very same chap who blatantly expressed his "disappointment" in the failure of the highly publicised Brunei Marathon. The concept of accountability seems to elude this man time and time again.

Having said that, however, I understand that his position is not an easy one to be in. Selling Brunei as a tourist destination is not exactly the easiest job in the world. The KNK campaign seems to be a good idea. It was the beginning of something interesting, a paradigm shift in thinking. Because someone had a eureka moment when he/she thought, "Hey! How can we sell Brunei to foreigners if we can't even sell it to ourselves?" So began an ambitious project to educate us locals on things that we may not even know about our own country. It is a good idea and according to the folks at the Tourism Board, this is just the beginning, a small piece of the big picture. We are going to get foreign tourists sooner or later.

But the bigger picture brings with it bigger setbacks. Are we ready to handle tourists logistically? Conventional "places of interest" are in a disarray.

The Brunei Museum, according to Mr Brunei Resources is in a sad state. Public transport is as reliable as the weather forecast for 2023 when we "achieve $356 million in tourism industries". This is not a chicken and egg situation where we wonder if tourists or readying ourselves should come first. The answer to this question is a simple one. Fair enough, this may be a job for other departments in other ministries of His Majesty's Government. But does the Tourism Board not have a stake in this? Is there anything on this end considered and acted upon? Or is it "not their department"?

There are many questions of this sort that need to be answered with candor by the Sultanate's sales team. I am no expert in tourism development, nor do I claim to be the right person to ask questions. But if a layman like myself can see loopholes in their plans, shouldn't our experts?