Timor-Leste is a small country, 15,000 km and a population just over 1 million, with beautiful and varied
landscapes. It has tropical waters rich in marine life, some white sandy beaches and rugged hill country /
mountain ranges. Natural features include caves systems and hot water springs. It is culturally interesting
with Portuguese colonial heritage, resistance history and Timorese culture. Timorese are generally
extremely friendly and very welcoming to visitors, especially in the districts. A'trickle' of international holiday
makers to this 'new' destination is definitely starting to emerge and these are arriving for quite a diverse
range of reasons.
Timor-Leste tourism is at an early stage of development and, not surprisingly, following its recent long
struggle for independence, receives extremely low numbers of international visitors. The previous presence
of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste contributed to the development of an artificial
tourism industry where the restricted mobility of the international staff created a captive market and a false
impression that tourist volume is achievable with little or no effort. Since the departure of the peace keeping
mission in December 2012, the occupancy rate of Dili's hotels and visitors to the districts in general have
declined substantially.
It will take time to (re-)build up international visitor arrivals through a combination of targeted tourism
marketing / development and ensuring those few visitors that are arriving receive a satisfying / good value
holiday experience (i.e. thereby generating positive 'word of mouth' recommendations in the market place).
In addition, it is likely to take time for other countries to soften their travel advisories on Timor-Leste, an
important step in making the country more attractive for holidaying.