The Cup That Cheers: Winning Indian Tourists On Newly Developed Tea-Tasting Circuits

chillibreeze writer — Deepanjolie

Flashback to Summer 2007: Recall hearing about the various efforts made by Tourism and Culture Minister, Ambika Soni towards promoting tea-tasting tourism to exhibit the multicultural splendor of our rich and varied land?

If you are not familiar with the story, here’s a quick review: The lady in question validated her views on a European Tour, bringing to the fore, India’s fortified efforts to unite tea-estate owners and real estate developers with the Indian Tea Board. Her ministry’s goal, she said, was to raise a healthful cuppa anti-oxidants in answer to Europe’s popular wine-tasting tourism packages that lure millions of global tourists annually!

Ms. Soni’s speech in Berlin last year was followed by subsequent addresses at various international conferences. All her speeches were geared to educate and in turn, woo new tourists to India in 2008 and beyond.

She focused on advertising the under-developed tea-tasting circuits across various states of India. She also highlighted the quaint tea-estate cultures that were already open to foreign visitors looking for rest, relaxation and rejuvenation.

Her focus was a far cry from the standard Indian tourism campaigns. Usually, when the piety, poverty and regal history of India have finished working their charm on foreign visitors, we trust Ayurveda, affordable shopping pleasures, various forms of meditation, regional cuisine with its distinct local flavors and uniquely Indian customs and traditions to weave their magic and appease holiday-makers.

All of the above are thankfully (for the tourism ministry) found in abundance at the various tea-growing states in North and East India, which have been upgrading their facilities so they can please the most discerning tastes of foreign tourists. Many now offer a host of modern amenities like spa treatments, night safaris, camp-outs, and guided tours of tea-plantation units with board and lodging at heritage bungalows. These activities are in addition to the regular sightseeing pleasures and assorted holiday activities offered by private and regional government tour operators.

Ms. Soni also pointed out how the liberalization of the country’s aviation sector and the 100% foreign investments being permitted in the tourism sector has attracted more of the same and helped to further boost the newly developed tea-tasting circuit.

Furthermore, tea-tasting holidays with a stay at heritage bungalows also affords the foreign visitor a chance to travel back in time to the days of the Raj, as many of these cottages hold souvenirs and antiques from the past. So, the eclectic mix of ‘cultural tour’ and a ‘concept tourism vacation’ to exotic India, clicks with the general view of getting real value for money.

After a taste of the varied legacies at these heritage tea-estate bungalows, and experiencing the exciting ingredients in the chosen concept tourism package like adventure, wellness, medical and eco tourism, the foreign tourist’s appetite for the new and exciting is well satiated!

So, while vineyard owners in Germany and France join hands with their governments to promote merry berry making in their verdant countryside, India has found a fitting, healthy and flavanoids-filled rejoinder to these wine-tasting holiday endorsements in its tea tourism circuit development.

High Tea in the Himalayan Highlands: India’s Tea Tourism Circuit

The Indian Tourism Ministry, estate owners and tea-board are aiming to provide a tasteful treat for tea-connoisseurs, the average family and business tourists besides honeymooners, and those looking for that elusive ‘something different’ in their holiday deal.

In an effort to increase sales and estate development, Assam, Darjeeling and other famous Indian tea gardens are inviting visitors to savor their unique flavors, while availing of yoga, massage and spa therapy pleasures. What’s more they also provide an opportunity to learn about the local culture of Indian tea gardens, with a ‘return to nature’ theme as an added bonus!

For the world-weary traveler, a tea-tasting trip to McLeod Russel India Ltd. is bound to be a treat. With its refurbished tea gardens and picturesque chain of properties across the Terai and Dooars in West Bengal, Assam and Myanmar, it spells bliss, old-world charm and lush, green serenity amid cloud covers!

Close at hand is the ambitious Ambuja Realty tea tourism project and its ensuing leisure hotel launch, the Makaibari Tea Estate, which offer an exotic vacation for discerning tourists. A visit here ensures tea-connoisseurs get inside information on tea production and management of the oolong and Darjeeling green teas.

A press release issued by the Ambuja Realty Development Ltd revealed this Kolkata–based group’s vision for one of the oldest tea estates in India – the Makaibari Tea Estate at Kurseong in the Himalayan foothills— as being one that combines high-end luxury vacationing for mainly foreign tourists. Situated 4,500ft above sea level, Makaibari is the world’s first tea garden certified for trade.

It wasn’t long before Tata Tea Ltd. too joined the fray with their pilot project in the Dam Din estate, offering tourists a taste of the plantation lifestyle. Its VP (plantation operations, N.India), Dipankar Borah, reveals the company’s decision to scale up operations further, following encouraging public response to the company’s announcement of tea-estate holidays.

Tata Tea is currently pursuing talks with the state government in a bid to explore possibilities of offering facilities for golfing and river rafting, when it opens its 4 tea gardens in north Bengal to high-end domestic and foreign tourists.

Other tea-garden owners in West Bengal (over 150 of them) too are making plans to enjoy a share of the pie that tea-tourism is proving to be. Not only is it a major, sustainable revenue generator but the government boost given to develop infrastructure in select pockets of north Bengal, including Malbazar and Murti, acts as a lucrative incentive to many.

The Union government too is geared to tap the potential of the tea-tourism circuit in India. It has instructed the state to amend existing land regulation norms to empower tea gardens to use sizeable chunks of their estates towards promoting the cause.

Many of the private garden owners have taken to developing cottages alongside their tea plantations, concentrated largely in Assam, Darjeeling and the Nilgiri mountains. Some even offer the added incentive of adventure sports like river rafting on the Teesta. Government initiatives also include a complementary wildlife tourism circuit.

So, those ready to taste the heady flavor of the season – tantalizing tea – can look forward to raising their daily cuppas in an ode to a colonial holiday atmosphere, awaiting them at erstwhile British summer retreats like Makaibari and Glenburn.

Cheers to that!!

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—About our writer:

Deepanjolie says, "A P.G. in English Lit and 5 years of teaching primary school kids, including 2 years of vocational crafts with special children preceded 5 years of freelance journalism, all of which were part-inspiration for taking to full-time writing. A mountain soul at heart, married to a fellow writer also attuned to the quietude the hills provide, I moved lock, stock and barrel to the hills of home (Kumaon) last year to pursue this common dream: cottage in the pines, life at our pace and to revive creative writing - of the dying kind."

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