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Taking in the temples, tucking into questionable street food and lugging around an oversized backpack around South East Asia is a rite of passage for many, but there’s one country people just aren’t flocking to.

As glossy promotional videos show, they may be missing out on stunning home-cooked food, a laid-back atmosphere and the “oldest skyscrapers in the world” in the tiny nation of Brunei.

A small boy voicing a recent Brunei Tourism video claims “everyone is family” when they visit the Muslim-majority nation on the island of Borneo.

The videos show an impressive Brunei highlight reel — showing one of the world’s best dive sites, as well as stunning rainforests, national parks and gilded mosques.

However, a radical new crackdown on gay rights as well as a raft of severe corporal punishments for seemingly minor offences could shatter this polished marketing campaign.

Far poorer countries in South East Asia like Cambodia (six million visitors), Laos (four million) and Myanmar (3.5 million) collectively pulled in more than 13 million visitors last year.

But only 278,100 visitors travelled to resource-rich Brunei last year — the same amount Singapore gets in a week.

Brunei’s national airline Royal Brunei Airlines, which accounts for 80 per cent of the seats flown to and from the tiny country, is desperately trying to change this.

It has set an ambitious target to double visitor arrivals by 2021.

However, this looks very doubtful given the laws that are about to be put in place in Brunei — which are already causing a major backlash and could create an insurmountable roadblock in attracting tourists.

By Wednesday, those “committing” adultery and gay sex in Brunei will be subject to death by stoning and thieves will have their limbs chopped off.

The nation’s leader Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, will impose the strict sharia laws — that have been on hold for four years amid heavy criticism — on Wednesday next week.

Reaction from Australia and around the world to the new laws has been one of horror, and a petition has already begun to try and stop Royal Brunei Airlines from being allowed to land in this country.

Brunei will be the only country that executes LGBTIQ people that has landing rights in Australia. Petition organiser Neil Pharaoh called on the Federal Government to rescind the landing rights of the airline.

“If it was any other group in the community being targeted we would stop doing business with them and start putting pressure on them. Why should it not be the same for LGBTIQ people?”

People flying out of Sydney and Melbourne needed to be aware of the potential risk — and they needed to make an informed choice when it came to selecting their airline, he said.

The shock new laws have also sparked an updated warning from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade — which has urged Australians to exercise “safety precautions” as new law can target them even while they are in transit.

This means travellers could be in danger without even realising it, simply because they are flying on a Brunei aircraft.

“It applies to Muslims, non-Muslim and foreigners even when on Brunei registered aircraft and vessels. Under this code some offences can attract physical punishment while others attract executions. Offences that attract the death penalty include blasphemy, sodomy, adultery, rape and murder,” the advice said.

Human rights groups have reacted with horror to the latest hard line move from the resource-rich nation of Borneo, which practises a stricter brand of Islam than its neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Brunei, with prison terms of up to 10 years, but it will now become a capital offence. The law only applies to Muslims.

The new penalty for theft is amputation of the right hand for a first offence, and the left foot for a second offence.

On Wednesday, Amnesty International urged Brunei to “immediately halt” implementation of the new penalties.

“To legalise such cruel and inhuman penalties is appalling of itself,” Brunei researcher Rachel Chhoa-Howard said in a statement.

“Some of the potential ‘offences’ should not even be deemed crimes at all, including consensual sex between adults of the same gender.”

A notice on Brunei’s Attorney-General’s Chambers dated December 29 last year said the provisions will take effect on April 3.

Brunei first announced the measures in 2013 but implementation has been delayed as officials worked out the practical details and in the teeth of opposition by rights groups.

— with AFP