"This place has the potential to be a Bali, this has among the highest number of marine species in the world" said he. I had just hopped off a small 6-seater aircraft onto a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, between the Australian subcontinent and the Indonesian archipelago just off the coast of a country called 'Timor-Leste'.
There was a tuk-tuk waiting along the airstrip. This random Australian was waiting near the Tuk-tuk. Perhaps he was a tourist there. As is my usual, I started talking. We got into the tuk-tuk together and were taken along a dusty road into the village.
I looked around. A single old broken basketball board stood in a corner. A few mud-unused dilapidated buildings as well. The greenery on one side of the road was covered with dust. The other side was the blue of the Ocean. The tuk-tuk huffed and puffed through the bumpy ride.
After a few minutes of travel, we entered a small compound. "A small resort", he said. Well, it's a resort of sorts. A few white men were having a meal. My co-passenger introduced me to his friend. Apparently, a volunteer helping out in one of the resorts. The volunteer called me to pull in the chair.
I had recently been to Bali. That is a different world. How on earth will this place become a Bali? His statement was still ringing in my mind.
I pulled in the chair and sat cross-legged on the chair like only I could. He was just finishing his meal. We started chatting about tourism on this Island. I was mandated to look at the life of the Indigenous people on this remote island and of course, learn about the importance of MAF on their lives.
What was I doing talking to this white man there?
"This place has live corals and some of the most beautiful marine beings in the world" he continued. Imagine if they could make this place an important tourist destination, the money will start coming into this country. This being so close to Australia actually is a big advantage I suppose. Snorkelling and scuba diving are big sports in that part of the world as well and where better to snorkel than a place with live corals and thousands of marine beings.
"So what is preventing the place from becoming a Bali", the curious man in me asked.
The biggest challenge the Island faces is the inability to have, regular, dependable, transport services to and fro. The boats could not be trusted. Rough seas are often a dampener. Since the place is only 15 minutes from an airport, having a small air service is an absolute game changer he reckoned.
"That was the original plan when we started the flight services to Atauro Island", said the MAF country director of Timor-Leste. "We could bring in more tourists and this can revive the sinking post-COVID economy of the place".
"Imagine, if someone stays there over the weekend, he will have to buy food from the local market, which could help the fisheries business in the village, and that could slowly help create a tourist ecosystem here", said one of the seniors of the Island village.
I did end up talking to a few more people from that Island village. One of them, a tourist, who had flown down on the MAF flight himself said, he would end up spending a few hundred dollars there in the village. More people, more money coming in I suppose! More money, better lives for local indigenous people.
"Would you be coming over, if the flights weren't available?", I asked a few of them! Many of them replied in the negative. MAF flights are a definite must it seemed like, for the building blocks of this village to be created.
I had often asked myself the question, "Why should MAF fly commercial?"
I realised then, before the commercial honchos of the world step in, to establish an ecosystem of business, someone has to do the dirty job of setting up the base. Before the money starts to come in, someone has to be creating the stepping stones.
That I guess, is what MAF is doing to the Atauro Island. Creating an ecosystem of Tourism. One flight at a time!
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