Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-03 18:43:02|Editor: Yurou Liang

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, July 3 (Xinhua) -- In the first quarter of 2017, the total number of international tourist arrivals to Brunei Darussalam through the Brunei International Airport stood at 67,956, compared to 56,431 in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 20.4 percent.

According to the latest statistics from Brunei's Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism released on Monday, the strong performance was mainly attributed to high travel demand, increase of air connectivity, travel facilitation, global economy recovery as well as improved performance from the main source markets comprised of Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.

Collectively the Far East market including China has contributed the highest year-on-year growth at 24.9 percent.

The top five countries to Brunei in the first quarter of 2017 were Malaysia due to its easy air accessibility and close proximity followed by China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. In total, the top five countries have contributed the majority portion of international tourist arrivals into the country for the first quarter of 2017 at 66.2 percent share of total tourist arrivals.

The main purpose of visit to Brunei for the first quarter of 2017 was for leisure and holiday at 41.7 percent share. About 13.7 percent of tourists travel for business, followed by transit at 10.1 percent.

China and Malaysia remained as the main contributors for the leisure and holiday market with each comprised of 16.2 percent share and 7.1 percent share respectively.