Abstract:
Geographical and climatic conditions of Sri Lanka have formed an appropriate possibility for
tea cultivation including the areas in Central Province, Southern Province and Western
Province. Historical evidences proved that tea tree has a long history dates back to the late
19th Century. Tea trails have been included in most of the tour packages offered by the travel
agencies in their tour itineraries. Currently tea plantations, tea culture and tea production have
been interacted by the tourism industry in the country. This study is based on the potential in
tea concept for promoting tourism industry in all aspects of hospitality, nature tourism,
culture tourism, community tourism, and tourism promotions. The research problem was to
identify how the tea plant is being attracted by the tourists for their travel and hospitality
related satisfaction. Research was conducted by accessing both primary and secondary data
collective methods where 20 travel agencies were observed, 7 tea states were observed and
20 tourists were interviewed during the research. Tea products and plantations have been
identified as primitive attraction by travel agencies and tour operators for promoting both
nature and cultural tourism. Brochures and websites of the travel agencies have been
designed with tea culture while the hospitality industry (accommodation units) offers another
kind of warm welcome with tea service for their guests such as High Tea. At the tea factories
organize specific tea trails where the visitors are given the opportunity to experience from
planting tea crops, tea plucking and production procedure. Tea is one of the international
symbolic icons in promoting Sri Lanka so that tourism industry is being attributed immense
advantage from tea culture. Moreover new technological aspects can be attributed in the
tourism industry for promoting tea based tourism experience.
