East Timor looks to tourism to cut oil, gas dependence
East Timor looks to tourism to cut oil, gas dependence
Yeoh En Lai, Associated Press, Singapore
East Timor, the world's youngest nation, pitched itself as a tourist destination for the first time Wednesday in what President Xanana Gusmao called an effort to avoid becoming dependent on oil and gas for revenue.
"Tourism will be an important provider of economic growth behind oil and gas ... We are now developing this industry from ground zero," Gusmao said, opening the Pacific Asia Travel Association's (PATA) annual travel fair.
"We will bring to the world our culture and our people," he said.
In much of East Timor, its 800,000 residents live on as little as 55 US cents a day. Outside of the capital of Dili, basic services remain woefully inadequate.
On the first anniversary of the country's independence in May, only four of 13 districts had phone services, 75 percent do not have electricity and around 60 percent do not have access to clean water.
Miguel Sarmento, Timor's tourism adviser, told The Associated Press that his country's tourism industry "was just born yesterday" but they were still using the fair to ink as many deals with tour operators as possible.
"There are no facts or figures or numbers, all we have are 500 hotel rooms around the country waiting (for tourists)," said Sarmento.
Coffee is the country's primary export but East Timor and Australia share the Timor Gap oil and gas field that will bring the impoverished country at least $7 billion over 20 years starting in 2005.
After delivering his speech, Gusmao toured the fair's exhibition hall and visited the Timor booth - located in the middle of the hall.
He posed for photographs at the booth, which showcased Timor's beaches and scuba diving spots.
"Many people have told me to jump into our sea, but I haven't accepted yet," he joked, referring to his more than six years in an Indonesian prison before Timor voted to end its giant neighbor's rule in 1999.
"But I can guarantee there will be more fish than people," he added, describing the country's coral reefs.
PATA has over 1,300 members - including travel operators, airlines, cruise lines, hotels, and 43 state tourism agencies.
Also Wednesday, countries most affected by a global travel slump from SARS, and the war in Iraq began a three-day hard sell to bring tourists back.
Hong Kong, Singapore, and China had all booked prime space at the front of the convention hall for their huge booths.
"This is a huge day for us," said one exhibitor with an Asia- based hotel chain, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We have appointment after appointment with tourism product buyers who we want to bring back here."
In a statement late Tuesday, PATA said that travel to 28 destinations in the Asia Pacific was down almost 14 percent this year compared to the same period last year because of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
"The past 18 months have been just full of trials and tribulations," PATA president, Peter de Jong, said.
SARS-affected countries accounted for 85 percent of all travel to the region and included Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam. SARS killed 900 people worldwide, most of them in Asia.