Royal Brunei Airlines plots Borneo onto destination marketing strategy

Chand: taking the lead in destination marketing with digital strategy as well as a multi-destination drive that packages Brunei with East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah

Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) has rolled out a B$5 million (US$3.6 million) destination marketing campaign as part of a fresh strategy to boost inbound arrivals into the sultanate and drive yield and load for the airline.

Since the campaign’s launch in late September, the airline had taken a lead in international destination marketing with the multi-destination approach of promoting Brunei with the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, RBA’s CEO Karam Chand told TTG Asia on the sidelines of the 10th APG World Connect in Monaco.

This marks a change from previous campaigns by Brunei Tourism where the sultanate was promoted as a mono destination.

Furthermore, RBA’s Borneo strategy is expected to get a boost from the upcoming Kuching service – which will resume from December 28 following its suspension in 2011 – to target longhaul leisure travellers transiting in Bandar Seri Begawan on its London-Melbourne route.

RBA has introduced its non-stop flight to London from Bandar Seri Begawan since end October, reducing the journey time by 3.5 hours each direction as the airline no longer flies via Dubai. It has also recently expanded its flight network to Taipei, Narita, Changsha, Nanning and Kuching.

Karam said: “We are running a 100 per cent digital campaign for at least two years. We have engaged M&C Saatchi Singapore to be the advertising agency and drive the initiatives forward… We are also targeting millennials through digital marketing campaigns.”

The campaign is led by James Millett, who joined the airline as head of digital and marketing in August. He was previously the director of marketing, digital and brand at EasyJet.

As the airline secures the “right people” to make a push for the destination, Chand remarked that the airline is looking forward to the NTO “to get their funding and skill sets sorted out”.

For now, the airline and Brunei Tourism are working collaboratively, with the latter overseeing the training of tourist guides, licensing matters and the setting of standards for the industry.

Karam said the airline will also organise travel trade missions in targeted markets with the relevant private sector stakeholders.

-TTG Asia.