Tea Tourism: An Unexplored Business Opportunity in Assam

Abstract

Assam is world’s single largest tea growing region. No one can deny the importance of tea industry in socioeconomic development of Assam. In recent times it has been seen that the tea industry in Assam is facing problems of price decline, price volatility, high production costs, tough competition etc. due to which tea growers are witnessing a downward trend in their revenue generation. In such a situation, tea tourism can be seen as an area to expand business and to earn handsome revenue by putting little additional investment and effort. The lush green tea gardens covering hundreds of acres of land along with sweet smells of tea plantations offer altogether a different experience to tourists. This paper tries to examine the trend of tourism, status of the tea industry and the prospects of tea tourism market in Assam. The paper is descriptive in nature and is based on secondary data. It is argued that tea tourismis a prospective and unexplored market for business development and there is a lot of scope for promoting tea tourism in the state of Assam.