Covid-19 and the Alignment of Timor-Leste’s Aviation and Tourism Strategies is a September 2020 report published by The Asia Foundation. It was written by aviation economist Paul Hooper, PhD, who helped the government develop its 2017 National Civil Aviation Policy. It was published under the Foundation’s tourism programme, which is funded by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It explains how Timor-Leste could restore international air services after COVID-19. It argues that weak connectivity, a long-standing constraint on tourism, needs a joint aviation and tourism strategy. The Asia Foundation introduced it in a blog post, “A Flight Path to Recovery for Tourism in Timor-Leste” (28 October 2020), by Gobie Rajalingam with Paul Hooper.
Key contents
- Baseline: In 2019 Timor-Leste received an estimated US$23.2 million from 38,074 leisure travellers, and tourism directly employed about 4,300 people.
- Short-term outlook: By April 2020 global aviation was reduced to repatriation, medical and cargo flights. The report sets out ICAO’s staged roadmap for reopening borders, preconditions for relaxing controls, the “travel bubble” concept and best practice for COVID-safe air travel. It also covers how tourism stakeholders can build relationships with airlines.
- Positioning: Surviving airlines will be smaller and selective. A small market at the edge of their networks must offer an attractive value proposition. The accompanying blog notes that Australia supplied almost 48% of inbound travellers in 2019 and that Timor-Leste’s low case count made it a candidate for travel-bubble arrangements.
- Medium-term challenges: (1) effective oversight of safety and security; (2) managing and developing aviation infrastructure; (3) expanding potential connectivity; (4) improving actual connectivity; (5) aligning aviation and tourism strategies.
- Conclusion: The government should align aviation and tourism policies, strategies and plans with international standards and enforce them at Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport.
Document details
- Publisher: The Asia Foundation
- Author: Paul Hooper, PhD
- Date: September 2020
- Language: English
- Pages: 28
- Download: PDF (asiafoundation.org)