About us...
Summary: TVH is a business whose plan includes working with local people to jointly benefit from the tourist industry. By working in this way we will be able to present what is unique about Timor Leste, whilst maintaining what that uniqueness is. Our commercial aim is that for every dollar of profit we make, our investors make a dollar, and our local partners make a dollar. By taking this equitable attitude all partners will be motivated to make the enterprise succeed and flourish.
Timor Village Hotels (TVH) is a private company newly registered in Timor Leste in 2006 but whose principals have been involved with tourism in Timor over many years. While it’s primary objective is obviously is to be financially viable and in the long –term provide a satisfactory return on money invested, it also aims to help develop, within Timor Leste, a sustainable tourist industry which provides real benefits to local communities.
Timor Leste is a blessed with great natural beauty. However there are many countries in this region, which have competing attractions, but have in place infrastructure and experience to provide relatively low-cost, quality destinations for tourists. It will be difficult in the short-term (and even in the long-term) for Timor Leste to compete on the same level and draw tourists away from such destinations.
It is the view of TVH, that for Timor Leste to develop a viable and sustainable tourist industry, it needs to preserve, develop and market what is unique about this (new nation) country.
What is unique primarily about Timor is it’s social and political history. Archeological excavations and rock art found in parts of Timor provide testimony to it’s very long and significant ancient history. Certainly, the existence of more than thirty different spoken languages today, would indicate that Timor has always been something of a melting pot resulting in a rich and diverse culture(s).
The relatively long period of Colonial rule has definitely imbedded a Portuguese flavour into local Timorese culture, religion and traditions. The short but intense period of the Second World War when foreign troops fought within Timor resulted in great trauma for the Timorese people, but created a special relationship with Australia which still has resonance with many Australians both young and old. This period is also of interest to Japanese wishing to explore and understand their own war history.
However what has most captured the worlds attention and interest in Timor Leste was the period of sustained and committed resistance to the Indonesian invasion in 1975 culminating in the heroic vote for Independence by the Timorese people in 1999 and there is a great deal of goodwill and interest in Timor throughout the world.. It is the newest nation in this world. It’s people free to truly self-govern for the first time since the colonial period began .In fact Timors entire history has been characterized by resistance, both in terms of active warfare (against Portuguese, Japanese and Indonesian), but also by a stoic resilience and determination by the Timorese people to preserve their own identity and traditions. It is this unique Timorese story and culture which needs to be documented, protected and presented (together with the natural attractions) to produce a unique Timor experience for tourists. However this has to be done in a manner which both, respects the past struggles, but also caters for future aspirations of the Timorese people.
TVH;s vision then is to help create many village based hotels at strategic locations which would form the basis for a comprehensive tour itinery exhibiting the main attractions of Timor and bringing visitors into contact with TImorese. These hotels would be semi-autonomous, operated and staffed locally, but under the umbrella of TVH’s management and guidance.
Where possible they will be constructed using local materials and traditional designs but incorporated with modern amenities to make tourists secure, healthy and comfortable. Depending on each situation they would generally low key visual impact, environmentally friendly and use renewable energy. They will be planned and managed in consultation with the local communities.
TVH plan a DiliHotel which will act as a training and management centre for the others, but this will run much like a normal Hotels.
The general hotel plan will be of a central reception / socializing / eating building with all amenities provided and then a number of self-contained but simple outlying ‘hotel rooms’. These would be restricted in number and strategically located with the hotel precinct so as provide relatively private views of the surrounding scenery and therefore help project the sense of quiet solitude desired by many tourists. Where possible similar accommodation will be developed outside this area within individual villagers households. These could be either be independently constructed and managed by owners in a private ‘bed and breakfast’ type arrangement which the central hotel could then recommend to prospective guests (as long as they met the necessary quality criteria and guiding environmental/ethical principles followed by TVH) and for which the hotel would receive a small booking fee or they could be directly managed by hotel staff in which case the hotel would charge a management fee. Either way such accommodation would form part of an extensive village hotel (hence the name Timor Village Hotels) which hopefully would, as well as meeting the desire of many tourists for a more direct village-life experience, help share the immediate cash benefits of tourism to as many local individual villagers as possible. This decentralized design would also, as demand increases, allow for the expansion of the number of ‘hotel rooms’ without unduly ruining the natural ambience of the location as a typical high density hotel development would do.
Depending on individual situations, land required to establish such hotels would be either purchased, leased or operated in partnership with the landholder whether that be a private individuals or a community organization. Irrespective of the method of land-tenure, TVH would enter into a profit-sharing arrangement with the local community and work actively to make sure the benefits of tourism are spread within the local area.
TVH would work together with, and help develop the capacity of, local community organizations to protect the environment, encourage other income generating activities and to preserve local culture and tradition.
TVH believes that sustainable income generation and protection of environment and culture need not be mutually exclusive but in fact are intricately intertwined. Placing a commercial value on culture and environment will help ensure their protection and their protection will ensure a sustainable tourist industry in Timor Leste. But this means that the local communities have to truly benefit from any tourist development in their midst.
TVH’s objective is to make sure this happens at same time as making generating sufficient profits to satisfy it’s investors and demonstrate that ethial practices in the tourist industry can bring mutual benefits to all concerned.
