How do you like your coffee? With cream and sugar and a side of adventure, perhaps?
Then look no further than coffee tourism.
Let’s find out what exactly is coffee tourism and how can it help the local economy.
Two coffee tour providers in different parts of the world – Verra Coffee in the Philippines and Quetzal Experts in Costa Rica were happy to give TeaCoffee99 an insight into the topic via a short interview.
By Andrew.
What is Coffee Tourism: A Definition
According to Voltage Restaurant Supply, coffee tourism means visiting countries where coffee is grown and tasting different types of coffee there.
Do you want to pick coffee cherries off a coffee plant while hiking in the mountains?
Or maybe enjoy some Arabica coffee while touring a beautiful city’s coffee shops and learning about where their coffee is sourced?
You can do all this and more on coffee tours around the world.
How Can Coffee Tourism Offset the Economic Difficulties of Coffee Producers?
There is a growing interest among tourists to learn about the culture and economy of the country they are visiting.
One way to understand local traditions is through food and beverages.
The other reason why tourists are more interested in the local culture is their wish to experience a more simplistic and agrarian way of life.
Coffee farmers who have noticed this trend have started to diversify their income by offering coffee tours.
This case study by Henrik Karlsson and Jesper Karlsson shows how wine tourism has helped to support the economies of wine producing countries.
The same thing happens in the coffee industry.
Let’s now take a look at how it works through the example of two coffee tour providers.
Verra Coffee: Philippine Coffee Is Rare And Exotic
How much do you know about Philippine coffee? Not much, right?
Despite the favourable climate and soil conditions in the Philippines, their coffee is not as famous as Indonesian or Vietnamese coffee.
We asked Vanessa Velasco from Verra Coffee what is the reason behind it.
“There is a huge demand for Philippine coffee in the world because it’s rare and exotic.
However, there is a very limited supply,” explains Velasco, the founder of Verra coffee.
An Opportunity
She has detected the hole in the market that when filled can hugely help her country’s economy.
What is it exactly that Verra coffee does is being a coffee grower and at the same time raising awareness about the coffee business and farming among high school students and entrepreneurs.
Her idea is to fill the gap between demand and supply by getting more people in the coffee farming and business.
And she does that by offering tours in the coffee plantations.
“Our tours raise awareness among the coffee enthusiasts on how coffee is grown in the Philippines, and make them appreciate the work of the farmers,” explains Velasco.
Basically Verra Coffee introduces the possibilities to potentially interested businessmen, coffee entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a farm and introduces the coffee industry as a possible career choice for high school students who take entrepreneurship class.
She also sees Verra coffee as a platform where people can talk about the trade.
More Players In The Industry Means Higher Quality Coffee
By bringing more people into the business she wants to enhance the high quality products to a global market.
“The more players in the industry, the bigger is the competition, and the growers strive to be more excellent and produce higher quality coffee,” she says and adds that this will also raise the coffee quality in the country.
So we see that behind the simple recreational activity of a coffee tour is a mission to boost the whole country’s economy.
Quetzal Coffee Experts: The Coffee Tour Is A Link Between Agriculture And Tourism
San Gerardo de Dota, a small village surrounded by cloud forest in Costa Rica, is home to a birdwatching & local tour company called Quetzal Experts.
Aside from taking people on the trip to find the tropical bird quetzal, they also offer coffee tours.
Quetzal Experts Coffee Tour takes you through the entire coffee process, from its production in the plant to its harvest, roasting, selection, grinding and tasting.
According to one of the owners of the Quetzal Experts Coffee Tours, Daniel Fernandez Chacon, coffee production and agriculture have been one of the main economic activities in the Los Santos area for a long time.
At the same time, the area has seen increasing interest in mountain tourism.
Chacon sees coffee tours as a link between agriculture and tourism.
Coffee Tours Have Helped The Local Economy A Lot
Chacon stresses that coffee tours have helped the local economy a lot.
“Thanks to the development of tourism promotion programs in the coffee zone, there has been the development of secondary businesses such as cafeterias, tourist offices, micro-benefits and farms adapted for tourism management,” he says.
Indirect Benefits
Coffee tours also provide indirect benefits to local people and companies.
“This type of activity has allowed tourism companies such as hotels and tour operators to diversify their portfolio of services, allowing people and companies in the area to benefit from it indirectly,” he says.
He adds that coffee tours bring money for example to advertising agencies, convenience stores and transportation services.
As we see, a single coffee tour doesn’t just bring money to one tour provider, but also to other companies in the area.
The State of Economies Where Coffee Tours are Offered: A Difficult Situation
Coffee has for a long time now been the most valuable product on the market, second only to oil.
While this trend will definitely continue, the economies of coffee producing countries are often in bad shape.
90 percent of the world’s coffee production takes place in developing countries.
Despite coffee being a main export of developing countries, smalltime coffee farmers still struggle to make ends meet.
The increasing price of things needed to produce coffee, such as fertilizer, makes it hard for coffee farmers to make a decent living.
Also, climate instability and pests, which make the actual amount of coffee yields unpredictable, and intense competition add to the typical coffee farmer’s difficulties.
Not only this but also labor shortages and supply chain issues make it difficult for farmers to keep up with demand.
It can be said that coffee farmers are experiencing nothing short of a crisis.
What can offset these economic difficulties? One of the answers is coffee tourism.
