Identifying the potential to develop Nuwara Eliya as a tea tourism destination Demand and supply perspectives
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Date
2015
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Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
It is in the areas of tea services, tea attractions, tea tours and tea destinations that tea is clearly directly
connected to tourism, as contemporary tourists seek out unique and authentic experiences
related to the consumption and appreciation of the beverage called’ tea’. As a result, demand for the
satisfaction of tea related tourism services increased and catering to such requirements became a
popular way of income generation. Many countries which are possessed with tea related resources
are making great efforts to brand those destinations related to tea tourism. According to Jolliffe
(2007), in Sri Lanka, tourism related to tea has been recognized as a potential strategy for the
diversification of tea plantations and the encouragement of sustainable development in tea-producing
regions. Ceylon Tea and Tourism are inseparable words as Sri Lanka’s tea growing areas are
undoubtedly the most beautiful places in the island (Ceylon Tea Land, 2013). This expresses the
capability of Nuwara Eliya, the main tea region and one of the main tourism regions in Sri Lanka, to
combine tourism and tea (Gunasekara & Momsen, 2004). The literature survey emphasizes the
importance of carrying out a research focusing on both demand and supplier perspectives to get a
broader picture since most of the existing studies are based on supply perspective. Therefore this
research focused on identifying the potentials of tea tourism in Nuwara Eliya district considering the
profile of potential tea tourists, expectations of tourists who travel to a tea related destinations and
the capabilities of Nuwara Eliya as a tea tourism destination from both demand and supply points of
view.
Methodology
A mixed approach was used for this study including both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Since
this is a new area of investigation and lack of recorded data about tourists who visit tea tourism
destinations in Nuwara Eliya district, Convenient Sampling Method was used in this study. Sample
was based on tea estate bungalows and tea establishments namely Heritance Tea factory hotel,
Labookele tea centre, The Tea Cup, Blue Field Tea Centre and Tea Trails which are located in
Nuwara Eliya area, as a reasonable amount of tourist arrivals are reporting from particular locations
and they were recognized tea tourism suppliers in Nuwara Eliya according to SLTDA (2014). Sixty
of foreign tourists were given questionnaires and five tea tourism establishments have been
interviewed to achieve the objectives. Therefore the actual amount of members of the sample was
sixty nine including those 64 tourists and the five establishments or the suppliers. Data analysis
techniques used were exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Graphical representations and Friedman
mean rank analysis of SPSS version 21. Transcriptions were developed and coded to summarize
data which were collected by the interviews.
Results
Findings depict that both genders (yet females show a significant higher percentage of 65%) have
visited tea related attractions, who belong to 31-40 age group, and they have a positive attitude
towards tea drinking (76%), and it was revealed that they often drink tea (73%). The majority of the
visitors found in the survey were full time employed. This percentage is very higher which is 78%
while the majority of the tourists (75%) told that they are willing to pay more than $50 for tea tourism
activities and products. 94% tourists were aware about Nuwara Eliya prior to their visit and the
general perception on Nuwara Eliya as a Tea Tourism destination among tourists was higher
(79%). The ranking they gave for Nuwara Eliya related to tea tourism is a prominent among other
international competitors (a mean rank of 1.35). “Tea related attractions” group was identified as the
most important destination capability for developing tea tourism in Nuwara Eliya which explained
23% of the variance (eigen value is 5.097).
Description
Keywords
Agriculture, Tea Industrials, Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management, Tourism Industry, Tourism Management