Integrating tea and tourism: a potential sustainable livelihood approach for Indonesia tea producer central area

The social changes within society with regard to tea are widespread in Indonesia and today are experienced as tourism, where a part of many tourist activities, whereby local tea traditions, cultures, services and attractions are experienced. Indonesia as both tea-producing and tea-consuming country has high potential to integrate with tourism to increase the sustainability of community livelihood. This study used a sustainable livelihood approach in a systematic framework to examine the relationships between tea and tourism, as well as enriched the interviews of tourist actors and 203 tourists with experiences of visiting the tea tourism destinations. This study finding that there has been an increase of diversity of livelihoods of the people around the tea plantations where have been developed into tourism. Corporate social responsibility provides a further opportunity in sustainable tea tourism development. Increasing services satisfaction of the tea tourists is one of the most important ways to increase the revisit intention. Creating a mutual partnership synergy can cover the lack of resources and competencies in tea and tourism integration development. For practical implications in the future are the important to enlarge integration between tea and tourism, build partnership, stimulate more local participation, and increase local benefits as their ways of life.