A Sustainable Tourism Mode for Timor-Leste is a 2011 slide presentation by Mariana da Costa of the General Directorate of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry. The file is labelled as a UNWTO presentation. It shows how the government framed ecotourism and community-based tourism (CBT) just as the Strategic Development Plan 2011–2030 came out. It includes an unusually frank case study of the Atauro eco-lodge.
Key contents
- Country profile: 15,410 km², population 1,066,582 (2010 census), GDP of US$701 million (2011). Coffee, oil and gas are the main exports.
- Tourism products: coastal and marine, cultural and historical, and events such as the Timor-Leste Carnival. A chart shows annual arrivals for 2007–2011.
- SDP vision: “Tourism, and in particular eco-tourism, will be a major contributor to the national economy.”
- Atauro eco-lodge case study: set up in 2002 and run by the Atauro-owned NGO Roman Luan. It has eight thatched bamboo huts and two tents, employs 11 staff and 25 lodge workers, and had received about 6,000 visitors from more than 40 countries (mainly Australia and Portugal). A land and property dispute with the landowner went to court, hurting staff, local suppliers and tour operators.
- Community-based tourism: the definition used, the 2008–2011 guesthouse programme in Com and Maubisse, the benefits (local jobs, culture and environment, local products), and the constraints (skills, marketing, coordination, market access, infrastructure, awareness).
- Strategy and actions: develop three tourist zones, improve infrastructure, strengthen human resources and institutions, map ecotourism areas and set up a CBT network, and tourism marketing.
Document details
- Author: Mariana da Costa, General Directorate of Tourism
- Publisher: Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry, Timor-Leste (UNWTO presentation)
- Year: 2011
- Language: English
- Pages: 23 slides
- Download: timorleste.tl PDF
Further reading
- Establishing a Community-Based Tourism Network in Timor-Leste
- Understanding Timor-Leste 2013 Conference Proceedings, Vol. II