The 2014 Survey of Travelers to Timor-Leste is the first in The Asia Foundation’s series of traveller exit surveys. It was run with the Ministry of Tourism and funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) under the Support for Good Public Policy programme. It was written because almost no data existed on who visits Timor-Leste, why they come and what they spend. It became the baseline that later surveys (2017, 2019) and the Tourism Barometer built on.
Key findings
- Method: From May to July 2014, enumerators approached 1,666 departing passengers in the departure hall of Nicolau Lobato International Airport, Dili. Tablet questionnaires were available in five languages. After eligibility screening (travellers over 17 who had done some leisure travel in the country), the final sample was 710 respondents.
- Who comes: 39% of respondents were Australian, 16% Indonesian and 9% Portuguese. 34% lived in Australia (mainly Darwin and Melbourne) and 24% lived in Timor-Leste.
- Why they come: 56% travelled for work, business or conferences, 17% on holiday and 16% to visit friends or family. 60% were return visitors.
- Arrival routes: 42% arrived from Denpasar, 39% from Darwin and 16% from Singapore. Only 7% reported problems on arrival, most often the cost of the visa.
- Trip planning: 75% relied on word of mouth before the trip and 31% used the internet. Relatively few found enough information once in the country.
- Experiences: Satisfaction was high for activities linked to biodiversity, history, culture and adventure (hiking, mountain biking), and most found leisure activities good value. Almost half said transport was not value for money, and only about a third rated infrastructure good or very good.
- Spending: Average spend was estimated at US$638 per trip. Annual value added by travellers who did leisure travel was projected at about US$14.6 million.
Document details
- Publisher: The Asia Foundation, with data collection by the Ministry of Tourism and The Asia Foundation
- Author: Gobie Rajalingam
- Funder: Australian Government (DFAT)
- Year: 2014
- Language: English
- Pages: 30
- Download: PDF (timorleste.tl)