Brunei wishes to become a player in the international tourism industry and to increase the demand for Brunei vacation rentals, and like other not-yet-developed destinations, it wishes to avoid the environmental degradation that often accompanies tourism development.

Looking into the not-too-distant future, the government of Brunei sees a day when oil revenues will no longer be sufficient to maintain its residents' current standard of living. Thus, the sultanate has embarked on a policy to develop its tourism industry, marketing itself as a center for trade and as a gateway for tourism into Borneo, which offers unspoiled rain forest that is seemingly ideal for ecotourism. Brunei took a step toward the international tourism market in 1997 with a budget designed to address the pressing need to develop its "nation equity" or its perceived quality in terms of products and services, communication messages, and aesthetics.(1) The 1997 initiative also aimed at enhancing the capability of its tourism sector. Although the sultanate has recently upgraded some of its infrastructure and made improved provisions for human-resources development, major obstacles include poor infrastructure, shortage of skilled labor, and underdeveloped service support structures. This article examines Brunei's prospects and suggests a strategic framework for its development.

Brunei is at the beginning of its tourism development and, indeed, has barely started dealing with its marketing effort. Whether tourism brings good or ill depends on how its tourism development is configured, managed, and marketed internationally. At present Brunei aspires to be a destination for small-scale tourism and plans accordingly to concentrate on ecotourism, for which it seems well suited.

Brunei's policymakers believe that the country can benefit most in the long run by being appropriately ambitious in establishing itself as an ecotourism destination. Marketed successfully, such status would bring high returns from visitors--allowing exploitation of the unique biodiversity of tropical rain forests without their destruction. In pushing its ecotourism strategy, however, the government must solve problems of low capacity in both hotel rooms and trained service laborers and partial degradation of landscape and environment. Nevertheless, in the long run, the sultanate should benefit enormously from infrastructure development, industrial diversification, and improvement in transportation and environmental protection.