Tea Culture Tourism Perception: A Study on the Harmony of Importance and Performance

Abstract

Tea culture tourism is a product of the combination of agricultural tourism and ecotourism. After the COVID-19 period, this product is more and more popular. Tourism performance is an important index for measuring the development level of tourist destinations, and research on the influencing factors of tourism performance is an important way to promote the high-quality development of tea culture tourism. Using the tea tourism town of Wushan as a case study, 452 valid questionnaires were used as research data, and exploratory factor analysis, paired sample t-test and IPA analysis were applied. The results indicate that: (1) tourism performance is mainly divided into 5 dimensions and 22 specific indicators, including service quality, resource environment, tourism transportation, tourism-supporting facilities and tea tourism products; (2) there is a significant difference between the degree of importance and performance of visitors to each indicator, and the overall tourism performance of the case sites at an average level; (3) convenient service, professional service, business management, park traffic, parking conditions, environmental design, shopping environment, tea quality, and tea culture characteristics are potential advantageous factors, and ‘service with a smile’, accessibility, trail layout, overall image, air quality, natural scenery, landscape vignettes, network communication, public toilets, sanitation facilities, tourist service centers, tea travel activities, and tourism souvenirs are areas in need of improvement.

Regional sustainability: Pressures and responses of tourism economy and ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin, China

“…Tourism is a typical environment-dependent industry, and the ecological environment not only affects the quality of the tourist experience but also restricts the process of tourism economic development. Tourism is an industry with high dependence on resources and the environment (Wang et al, 2020;Zhou et al, 2023). On the one hand, rich cultural tourism resources, unique regional culture, and beautifully natural and humanistic environments are the basis for tourism development (Richards, 2018).…”

The Role of Chinese Green Tea and Tourism Development in Hunan Province

“…According to Zhou et al (2023), here are three categories for 'tea culture tourism' which developed in the 1990s, which are; (1) What is tea culture tourism: specifically focusing on the categories of tea culture and tourism, (2) How to develop tea culture tourism? and (3) What kind of tea culture tourism is developed?.…”

“…and (3) What kind of tea culture tourism is developed?. The study focuses mostly on analysing the tourist and tea industries' growth patterns, classifying multiple kinds of tourist products that have been developed in response to specialised consumer needs and geographic factors (Zhou et al, 2023).…”

“…Traditional Chinese culture is effectively represented by its tea culture, that is based on tea leaves and encompasses a wide range of related subjects such as tea people, tea history, tea events, tea technology, tea ware, tea cuisine, and tea art (Zhou et al, 2023). In addition, promoting the transformation and development of the local tea industry, it have massive impact to the development of China's ecological civilisation by integrating ecotourism and tea culture to provides advantages for engaging the ecological benefits of tourism activities and enhancing the quality of tourism.…”

“…Furthermore, culture is the essence of tourism, and tourist activities without of cultural aspects fall prey to being superficial and mediocrity since culture is the foundation of tourism. (Zhou et al, 2023). There is clear differences between tea culture tourism and other types of tourism.…”