Marketing Green Tea Tourism Destinations

Abstract

Many tea producers, wholesalers, and retailers in Japan, particularly in Shizuoka, are experiencing stagnant or declining business. With changes in the region’s external environment, such as decreased demand for green tea leaves and intensifying competition, Shizuoka’s tea-producing regions will continue to decline if there is no effective development strategy. Such a strategy is therefore indispensable to restoring the vitality of the tea-producing region of Shizuoka. This study shifts away from the conventional idea of selling Shizuoka’s green tea and toward selling Shizuoka with green tea – put simply, marketing the tea-producing region through green tea tourism. This empirical study comprised an online questionnaire administered to 1000 consumers in Tokyo to evaluate the demand for green tea tourism and factors that influence the selection of a tea tourism destination. The results revealed that green tea tourism demand exists. Particularly, green tea tourism can be categorised into two types: (1) interaction based and (2) relaxation based. Tea-related tourism activities of both types are expected to increase green tea consumption and demand and revitalise the tea-producing region by improving tea tourism destinations’ brand images.