29/06/2022
What is tea tourism?
( text & Photo Credit - Darshi Peiris )
Tourism which is motivated by an interest in the history, culture, and traditions related to the consumption of tea, consists of tea gardens where tea is planted, tea factories where it is produced, tea shops where it is for sale or served, and institutions that preserve and interpret the tea culture; can be defined as tea tourism.
A peripheral industry built up around tea, focuses on the production of goods for the tea-loving public, including tea accessories, books on tea, and a variety of tea-themed giftware.
Tea tourism can be identified as a niche tourism segment that emerged with a novel concept of responsible tourism, sustainable and nature-based eco-friendly tourism. Tea combination has developed as an art in some societies, such as Japan. Various tea tourism-based products attract tourists to tea destinations such as China, Japan and England that promote tea-related products to their visitors who take a nice memory of their favourite beverage from the destination where it originated.
These are either sold as souvenirs and complimentary giveaway gift items to make their tea tour memorable which in turn creates an opportunity to make them repeat guests and to promote the destination by word of mouth. I feel Sri Lanka can also expand on these initiatives to further position ourselves as a tea tourism destination.