Wild Tea and Indigenous Tourism

Abstract

The chapter will define the relationship between wild tea and indigenous tourism. It covers such topics as wild tea knowledge, historic and cultural aspects of Snow Shan tea, local tea heritage tourism resources, impacts of the tea industry and indigenous tourism on the local livelihoods, and the marketing of tea heritage tourism products and services. The two main research methods employed are the analysis of the secondary data and documents and semi-structured in-depth interviews as presented in the methodology section. Several tea producers in the study area have been cultivating the Snow Shan tea variety on a large scale, hence making a significant impact on improving the livelihood of the local people. However, the local tourism industry has not explored the full potential of Snow Shan tea to offer distinctive experiences and tourism services. Together with developing tea-themed programs and services, the local travel industry should leverage the advent of information technology such as social networking sites or online travel agency platforms to promote this type of tourism offering in the district.