Tea-tourism Integration Revitalises Zhangjiajie’s Local Cultural and Agricultural Industries

Endowed with world-class mountain landscapes and distinctive Tujia folk culture, Zhangjiajie Wulingyuan boasts superior ecological conditions that nurture high-quality green tea, black tea and vine tea. For a long time, local tea products relied solely on offline sales with little cultural IP empowerment and immersive tourism scenarios. The separation between scenic tourism resources and tea agriculture limited product added value and brand influence, restricting the development of local characteristic industries.

A local Tujia young entrepreneur has targeted this industrial shortfall and explored an innovative integrated development model of tourism, tea culture and modern agriculture. By founding a local agricultural company, she focuses on the ecological tea resources of Tianzi Mountain, integrating natural landscape resources and intangible folk culture to transform traditional tea sales into immersive cultural tourism experiences.

The entrepreneurial team cooperated with local tea factories to launch a professional tea tourism brand in 2019. Facing initial challenges in capital, operational experience and customer acquisition, the team launched the first professional tea art experience store in Tianzi Mountain Town. The project breaks the traditional local business model that prioritised product sales over consumer experience.

Leveraging the stable passenger flow of Wulingyuan Scenic Area, the offline experience venue serves as a display window for ecological tea resources and Tujia tea culture. Tourists can participate in tea tasting, tea appreciation, tea art interaction and cultural popularisation activities. The interactive scenarios realise mutual empowerment for tourism drainage, cultural inheritance and local product promotion, enriching the industrial forms of Zhangjiajie’s cultural tourism sector.

Adhering to the development philosophy of tourism diversion, cultural empowerment and experiential operation, the brand has built a complete local cultural tourism system covering ecological sightseeing, cultural interaction and tea consumption. The iterative optimisation of diversified scenarios effectively makes up for the lack of rural characteristic tourism experiences in surrounding scenic areas.

With reliable tea quality, profound folk cultural connotations and standardised tourism services, the local tea tourism brand has established outstanding market recognition in the Tianzi Mountain area. The continuously optimised business system has driven the transformation from individual entrepreneurship to professional team operation.

The thriving tea tourism industry delivers tangible social benefits. The expanding industrial chain creates stable local employment opportunities and increases resident income, forming a virtuous cycle of cultural tourism-driven rural development. The core businesses covering tourism services, immersive tea experiences and local specialty promotion underpin the steady progress of regional characteristic industries.

The local team will further explore the connotation of Tujia tea culture and upgrade immersive tea tourism experience projects. It will optimise tea production, sales and brand promotion systems relying on Zhangjiajie’s global tourism advantages and Tianzi Mountain’s ecological endowments. The continuous cultivation of high-quality local cultural and tourism IP will expand the market influence of Zhangjiajie ecological tea products and consolidate the distinctive competitiveness of the region’s tea-tourism integration industry.