The Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan 2011–2030 (SDP) is the Government of Timor-Leste’s 20-year national development plan. It was published in July 2011 under Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão. Its aim is to move the country from low income to upper-middle income by 2030, with a healthy, well-educated and safe population. Tourism is one of three strategic industries the SDP expects to build the non-oil economy, alongside agriculture and petroleum. The plan’s three tourist zones still shape tourism planning, including the National Tourism Policy (2017) and the National Strategic Plan for the Development of Tourism 2023–2030.
Structure
The plan has five parts:
- Introduction
- Social Capital: education and training, health, social inclusion, environment, culture and heritage
- Infrastructure Development: roads and bridges, water and sanitation, electricity, sea ports, airports, telecommunications
- Economic Development: rural development, agriculture, petroleum, tourism, private sector investment
- Institutional Framework
The tourism chapter
- Positioning: Timor-Leste will not compete with the mature mass-market destinations in its region. Instead it will appeal to visitors who want “boutique, adventure and eco-tourism experiences”. It also states that “tourism, and in particular eco-tourism, will be a major contributor to the national economy”.
- Challenges named: poor roads, limited accommodation and relatively expensive air links.
- Arrivals data: 26,162 tourist arrivals in 2009 and 28,824 in 2010, counted at the airport, seaport and land border posts.
- Target markets: eco and marine tourism; historic and cultural tourism; adventure and sports tourism; religious and pilgrimage tourism; conference and convention tourism.
- Three tourist zones:
- Eastern: Tutuala and Jaco Island through Com and Baucau, along the coast road to Hera. Includes Nino Konis Santana National Park and Mount Matebian.
- Central: Dili, Atauro and Maubisse/Mount Ramelau.
- Western: the Great North Coast Road to Balibo, plus Maliana, Bobonaro, Maubara and the Ermera coffee lands.
- Targets by 2015: rehabilitate the Dili airport, regional airports and key tourist roads (including the Great North Coast Road from Com to Balibo); set up a tourism and hospitality training centre in Dili; develop tourist packages for each zone; run an international marketing strategy with an annual events calendar; open Tourist Information Centres in Dili, Lospalos and Baucau.
- Targets by 2020 and 2030: by 2020, key destinations operating with upgraded infrastructure. By 2030, “a well developed tourist industry attracting a large number of international visitors”. The plan gives no numeric visitor target.
Document details
- Publisher: Government of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
- Year: 2011 (a version submitted to the National Parliament circulated in 2010–11)
- Language: English (also published in Portuguese and Tetum)
- Pages: 232 (final English edition)
- Download: Official PDF, timor-leste.gov.tl