Abstract:
The Community based tourism could be one way of creating a more sustainable tourism industry. Community based tourism brings numerous benefits to the wider community by increasing the standard of living in rural areas, which helps in reducing migration to urban areas. Other businesses that provide ancillary tourism services such as cafes, restaurants, taxis, shops, groceries also benefit from this concept. The study begins with an assessment of potential tea tourism products that could be developed in the community of Hanthana and the neighboring communities. Along with this assessment, barriers and opportunities to community-based tourism development were examined at the community level, Causes for the less attractions as tea tourism destination, role of stake holder to develop tea tourism in the Hanthana and identify planning process to develop the tea tourism of the area. To conduct the research the methodology that followed interviews and an assessment tool to identify tea tourism potentials within the Hanthana area.