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Tourism in a Nutshell

Tourism exists everywhere in many forms. In some cases tourism is defined as any trip that takes you 50km or more from your house or dwelling. This post will introduce a few approaches to tourism in Timor Leste. We’ve divided them into three broad categories, all of which are quite diverse.

1)      Foreign Owned Businesses

2)      Locally Owned Private Business

3)      Community Based Ventures

It focuses on Community Based Tourism, as this is the approach we see as most important and beneficial at this stage of tourism development.  So without further ado, here we go:

Foreign Owned Private Businesses

Following the arrival of a large UN contingent in 1999, foreign owned bars, restaurants and other services boomed in Dili. Whilst initially set up to cater to expat demands for cold beer and western food, they are also well placed to capture the growing number of tourists visiting Timor Leste. Some businesses such as diving companies are long established. Others are newer, exploiting niches in the local market for products such as cafes with  Timorese coffee made using a fancy Italian machine.

Good Points

-          Provide employment for local staff

-          Generally provide high quality products and services that many tourists seek

Bad Points

-          Profits can go offshore

-          Can be less focussed on building local skills and capacity  of staff

-          Often rely heavily on imported food, bypassing local markets and produce

Of course there are many practicalities to consider here. Whilst beef is available every day at local markets, facilities don’t exist to butcher and hang meat properly making it difficult to source local western style steak. And for those who have discovered the joys of eating grilled chicken or fish beside the beach in Dili, some tourists do prefer a nice steak.

Locally Owned Private Businesses

Locally owned small businesses provide a range of services for tourists. In the districts, outside of Dili and Baucau for example, the only accommodation options are often small, family run guesthouses.

Good Points

-          Profits go to local families

-          Often use more local produce

-          Family atmosphere provides unique tourist experience

Bad Points

-          One family benefitting from tourism through a guesthouse can create division and resentment within small communities

-          Standard and quality of local guesthouses can vary considerably

Again local produce is a point of conjecture. Whilst markets provide a good range of local fruit and vegetables, many other goods from cooking oil to rice and eggs are imported from neighbouring Indonesia, or in the case of frozen chicken, from Brazil!

Community Based Ventures

There are many different labels given to ‘alternative’ or ‘sustainable’ forms of tourism. These can be anything from ecotourism to cultural tourism, nature based tourism etc. Community Based Tourism (CBT) seeks to manage the social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts of tourism to maximise the benefits for local communities. There are however a few basic principles:

1)      CBT usually involves partnerships with communities to develop local skills and capacity.

2)      The community has an appropriate level of control over local tourism development.

3)      It provides unique experiences for tourists seeking to learn about and understand local communities.

Good Points

-          Tourism is developed at the rate that community can manage

-          Can provide interesting, unique and immersive experiences for tourists

Bad Points

-          Takes a lot of time and resources to build community trust, knowledge, understanding and tourism related skills.

-          At early stages, service and facilities can be basic and challenging for many western tourists.

Once again this is not all black and white. Some lodges and hotels in Africa and Asia can be considered CBT but provide five star service. It’s also really really hard to get the balance right with CBT , finding the right mix between an authentic cultural experiences with luxuries and necesseties required by most western tourists.

Two great examples of Community Based Tourism ventures in Timor Leste is the Tua Koin Ecolodge on Atauro Island and Valu Sere Ecolodge opposite Jaco Island. Tua Koin was the ‘original’ CBT project in Timor Leste, established in partnership with International Donors and a local NGO Roman Luan, based on Atauro Island. Profits generated by the ecolodge funded local projects such as building primary school facilities in remote island villages. The beachside huts have gained plenty of attention and publicity, but have sadly been closed for almost 12 months due to disputes with local land owners. It’s a real shame for both tourists and the local community that the issue has dragged on for so long while  such an important tourism destination remains closed. We will return to this topic at a later time.

Valu Sere is a simple hut style lodge was developed in partnership with the local Dili based NGO Haburas over a 4-5 year period. The lodge has a cooperative approach to management, with teams of families rotating responsibility for managing the huts on a weekly or fortnightly basis. Profits are divided equally and decisions reached by consensus by the families involved.

Determining the right type of tourism for Timor Leste, the balance between different types of tourism development and how to encourage it is complex and difficult. But what do you think? What is the best way forward for tourism development in Timor? Is the current balance between local, foreign owned and community based tourism business in Timor a healthy one?

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