Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

There is an increasing trend of improving the interaction between products and customers (Colombini, 2015). According to Lavandoski et al. (2016), food tourism (including beverage) becomes a contemporary necessity for travel experience which could create financial, promotional and educational benefit. Instead of wine purchasing or wine tasting alone, wine tourism in Italy represents an excellent combination of local landscape, traditional activities (artisanship and agriculture) and local food and gastronomy. All elements work as complements which create additional value in tourists’ wine experience but also generate economic opportunities to local business and transmit local culture. Similar to the wine tourism in Italy, tea tourism is experiencing a beginning stage of rapid growth in China especially in tea tours and tea museums (刘, 2014). Tea tourism as an essential part of the economy creates many opportunities and threats; wine tourism and tea tourism developed in an institutionalized environment. Social factors and regulations largely influence the development which could reflect in some activities in wine tourism and tea tourism in Italy and China respectively (Lavandoski, Pinto & Sliva 2016). While in China, there is a lack of focus on sustainable growth that consideration of economic development, landscape protection, and cultural delivery. There are a lack of regulation in the use of pesticides in tea plantation. When comes to the tea ceremony, international tourists would first think of Japan or Korea instead of China, even China is the original tea drinking country and owns the largest tea plantation area in the world (刘, 2014).