Exploring upcountry tea pickers' culture and their lifestyles which are so culturally vibrant and socially sentimental.

Key finding of the study

Pure authenticity cannot be incorporated into the traditional line rooms and their lifestyle when practising heritage tea tourism.

Authors

Dinusha G.V.H., Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

Sandaruwani J.A.R.C., Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka 

Arachchi R.S.S.W., Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

Summary of the study

Authentic or genuine tourism products problematize sustainability or heritage form of tourism when it really connects to the culture. Therefore, suppliers of these line rooms related to tourism products have to be depending upon stage authenticity as far as visitors have believed the product is real which signals the requirement for cultural manifestos. Sometimes, some of these stage authentic experiences may reject by extreme authentic seekers but they may be again suitable for another customer from a different market segment. Further, realizing line room experience as original or duplicate is subjective to the visitor profile. Meena Amma’s Line Room Experience and Kandapola Village House are such heritage tea tourism products offering the experience of the life of hill country Indian Tamils who migrated from Indian years ago and settled in tea plantation estates in Nuwaraeliya Sri Lanka without romanticizing the real tear stories of these communities. Rather than that, these two unique products could able to contribute inclusive growth for these marginalized communities.

Published in

Routledge Handbook of Tea Tourism. (Routledge Publication)

Link to the article

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