1. Introduction
Special interest tourism has grown rapidly and become a valuable niche market and a core activity for multiple destinations to promote locally distinctive products over the past few decades (Ma et al., 2020) . According to the Future Market Insights (2021) , special interest tourism is set to explode exponentially between 2020 and 2030 as customer demand for new experiences increased. As one of the most popular special interest markets, coffee tourism is undoubtedly a huge attraction for tourists. Athanasopoulou (2021) points out that 2.5 billion cups of coffee is consumed worldwide every day, and 500 billion cups of coffee is consumed every year. Thus, there is huge potential for coffee-based travel experiences. Coffee tourism has a profound impact on local culture and community economic development. By visiting coffee plantations, experiencing coffee growing and cultivation, coffee processing and coffee tasting, coffee tourism not only brings real experience to tourists and increases the experience value of customers, creates social and economic value, but also helps to establish the brand image of destinations and create opportunities to promote the performance of tourist destinations (Hall, 2019; Casalegno et al., 2020) . Therefore, it is very important to study history, present and future of coffee tourism. Although many scholars have studied the value of coffee tourism, there is still a lack of investigation on the development prospects of coffee tourism and its micro-niche markets. For this purpose, this paper aims to illustrate the potential development and opportunities of coffee tourism and its micro-niche markets through a series of academic literature, industry reports, case studies, etc., and conduct an in-depth analysis of the past, present and future of coffee tourism and its micro-niche markets.
2. Historical Development of Coffee Tourism
Food is a necessity for human survival (Mulcahy, 2019) . As the economy, society and technology, especially the improvement of communication and transportation systems, food tourists become more familiar with exotic foods and try to seek more new opportunities to experience gastronomic activities (Katz, 2003) . Thus, around the late 1990s, gastronomy tourism became a unique industry (Mulcahy, 2019) . Coffee, tea, wine, whiskey and other beverages are an important part of food tourism (World Food Travel Association, n.d.) . The formation of coffee tourism is similar to that of food tourism. According to Weissman (2008) , the birth of coffee connoisseur culture in the United States stems from the tendency of a new generation of traveling gourmands to discover new flavors through travel. Although there is no specific time for the origin and place of coffee tourism, coffee culture deeply affects the development of modern society, as the global rise of Starbucks shows (Clark, 2007) . In 1999, the third coffee wave was first mentioned, and people were no longer just concerned with the culture of coffee, but were interested in the production of high-quality coffee (Gold, 2008) . The wave transformed the brewing of coffee by focusing on high-quality and single-origin beans, providing a rich narrative that reflected the geological features and culture of coffee’s origins (Jolliffe, 2010) . With the development of the third coffee wave, customers have improved their experience of coffee drinking by understanding how coffee is produced, and coffee tourism has grown accordingly. As the second most popular beverage after water, coffee undoubtedly has a long history and culture, extensive sales market and potential market development compared with tea, whiskey, wine and other beverages. In 2003, Boniface, one of the first to distinguish coffee tourism from food tourism emphasizes that compared with Michelin restaurants or wine tourist attractions in southern Europe, coffee tourism has a wider audience and development prospects (Boniface, 2003) . Customers’ pursuit and preference for coffee cuisine and culture undoubtedly promotes the formation of coffee tourism. Later, in the first two decades of the 21st century, coffee tourism evolved from a single enterprise into a fully profitable industry, appealing to local communities, outside investors and international tour operators (Rutynskyi & Kushniruk, 2020) .
3. Recent Research Findings on Coffee Tourism
3.1. The Literature Table
In the face of the booming coffee tourism, scholars from every corner of the world have analyzed the characteristics, opportunities, potential development, benefits and limitations of coffee tourism, as well as the characteristics and behaviors of coffee tourism audiences. The following is a summary of major literature on coffee tourism in the past 15 years (Table 1).
3.2. The Impact of Coffee Tourism on Destination Development
For special interest travel, the travel experience and the desire to form an emotional connection with the destination or associated brand are crucial (Agarwal et al., 2018) . According to Gedikli et al. (2014) , tourism destinations are facing greater pressure than ever before. Due to social and economic development, technological innovation, and the promotion of globalization, a variety of commodities are currently competing in the crowded global market, and market differentiation and segmentation have become more important. They need to create goods and services that enhance the experience of visitors while meeting their need for self-improvement and self-fulfillment. Coffee tourism can bring customers an immersive experience, thus strengthening the relationship between customers and the destination. According to Setiyorini (2019) , the coffee tourism market has a great potential since people often associate coffee with the place of origin of coffee, which will undoubtedly promote tourists’ visit to the tourist destination. Economically and socially, coffee tourism can not only produce and sell coffee beans, but also produce a variety of tourism products, so as to enhance the added value of local social well-being. Anbalagan & Lovelock (2014) also believed that the development of coffee tourism has a certain positive impact on local communities. For example, the development of coffee tourism provides employment opportunities for surplus labor. In addition, the coffee tour has had a positive impact on local co-operatives, introducing diversified management structures, extensive training opportunities and new professional positions (Lyon, 2013) . Coffee tourism strengthens tourists’ travel experience by visiting cafes, observing coffee making, coffee tasting, and other interactive activities, which is conducive to shaping the image and reputation of tourist destinations (Candelo et al., 2019) .
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Table 1. Major literature on coffee tourism in the past 15 years.
However, the development of coffee tourism is not entirely positive for the development of local or tourist destinations. Coffee tourism may cause negative impacts such as conflicts in the use of public infrastructure between tourists and residents, commercialization of culture, and excessive development of the ecological environment (Setiyorini, 2019) . The study of Lyon (2013) also proves this point. The uneven distribution of the costs and benefits of coffee tourism among the local resident population means that some residents who do not benefit from coffee tourism also need to bear the increasing tangible and intangible costs of coffee tourism, which undoubtedly increases their economic and social burden, thus widening the gap between the rich and the poor. As a result, some families refuse to support the influx of tourists in violent and non-violent activities, resulting in a certain amount of trouble with the social security of tourist destinations. In addition, coffee tourism may cause drugs, crime or other problems across borders and regions.
Therefore, the impact of the development of coffee tourism on tourist destinations is complex. But in general, coffee tourism does more good than harm to tourist destinations, especially in the introduction of diversified economy and culture, promoting the local commodity market economy, improving the employment rate of residents, creating a good image of the destination, promoting the development of the local economy, and improving the welfare of local communities.
3.3. Customer Motivation in Coffee Tourism
Coffee tourism may be considered a growing niche tourist industry, given the rise in coffee production and consumption and the growing number of coffee-related businesses throughout the globe. Many scholars believe that the formation of coffee tourism is related to the spiritual pursuit of tourists. According to Smith et al. (2019) , some Thai and foreign tourists first visit coffee tourism destinations for leisure and entertainment purposes. They hope not only to learn firsthand about coffee growing and production, buy local products and handicrafts of coffee-related products, but also to expand their knowledge of coffee tourism with the assistance of local guides. Chen et al. (2021) also prove that relaxation and novelty are significant travel motivations of tourists in coffee tourism. They seek the quiet and peaceful atmosphere brought by visiting different cafes, so as to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, these scholars basically surveyed the existing coffee tourists and concluded that novelty and relaxation spirit is one of the motivations of coffee tourism. Thus, they cannot reversely prove the proportion of the whole tourist group to participate in coffee tourism due to novelty and relaxation spirit, and there are still some gaps in this part. Novelli (2005) makes a similar case but thinks that coffee tourism as a stand-alone commodity would only appeal to a small group of people, most coffee drinkers. Casalegno et al. (2020) indirectly prove this point. He sees coffee tourism as an experiential change that transforms the demand for coffee into a consumer experience. Therefore, one of the main reasons for coffee tourism is the series of activities that coffee consumers are interested in what is behind the production of coffee. On the other hand, Saarinen et al. (2017) effectively divide tourism destinations into three different types of coffee destinations according to the different demands of coffee lovers and coffee consumers for coffee tourism, namely, coffee production destinations, coffee culture destinations and coffee historical destinations. Therefore, it can be concluded from the above literature that customers’ interest in coffee, including cultivation, tasting and cultural understanding, is the main motivation of coffee tourism.
4. Development of Micro-Niche Markets
According to Novelli (2005) , the word “niche tourism” is mainly obtained from “niche marketing,” which describes how particular goods, services, or products may be customized in a way that they meet the specific requirements of the targeted market or audience. This idea is where the concept of niche tourism markets and niche tourist products arises. Novelli continues to assert that niche tourism may also be described as the breaking down of the whole concept of tourism into considerably larger market sectors (Novelli, 2005) . Different dimensions exist through which specialized destinations with unique niche services or products may emerge and offer themselves, in addition to the emphasis on tourist activities and what visitors interact with at a destination. A micro niche is a highly specialized service or product. Micro niches refer to niche subsets that have been developed from larger markets, which provide a number of advantages, including the ability to pre-qualify consumers and clients early in the marketing funnel. While the term “niche” implies that the market is tiny, this is not necessarily the case. Niche markets may be large, such as the golf and Game of Thrones tourist industries in the northern regions of Ireland (Novelli, 2005) . Other travel experiences may focus on creating an experience for the guests, include outdoor activities, traditional tours, nature walks and drives, and cinema. Travel destinations must be prepared to take advantage of new and developing possibilities as niche tourism continues to increase in popularity both at home and abroad.
In the third part, through a series of scholars’ research and investigation, this paper expounds that the motivation of coffee tourism is due to the interest in coffee production, history, culture and taste. Therefore, coffee tourism has different market groups, which is the origin of the coffee tourism micro-niche market, and can be classified as coffee culture tourism, coffee tasting tourism, coffee production tourism (Saarinen et al., 2017) . Coffee culture tourism facilitates the development of micro niche markets in coffee tourism. A micro niche market may develop as a result of the coffee culture in a particular place. The population may depend on coffee in their main cultural brew. Moreover, harvesting periods may also be part of coffee culture tourism (Gedikli et al., 2014) . This may offer tourist attractions during such festivities and creates a niche market where the coffee is the main commodity. According to the literature by Novelli (2005) , niche marketing techniques may involve coffee tasting development. There are markets specifically designed for coffee tasting, and are also part of the niche markets in coffee tourism. Coffee tasting entails four distinct steps. Coffee smelling is the first phase of coffee tasting, which helps in describing its aroma. Second is slurping, which involves spraying coffee across ones’ palate, it allows all the flavors of coffee to reach the tasting buds of the tongue. Third is defining the experience one feels when the coffee flavors are on the taste buds of the tongue. Lastly, the individual offers a description of the coffee through word of mouth. Richards and Marques (2012) also assert that festivals and events that purely involve coffee tasting are good niche markets for coffee tourism culture as they create more value for different types of coffee.
According to Richards & Marques (2012) , destination development often starts with new thoughts that develop into initiatives, and these ideas are focused on offering attractions and services as much as they are concerned with creating markets and promoting them. As a result, developing particular customized goods at the location level is viewed as a method to attract high-end, high-yield visitors via a highly personalized “niche” service, such as wellness vacations. Offering coffee-related tourism activities serves as a draw, bringing more tourists to the area. Direct investment in a variety of tourism and associated companies boost economic gains. This aspect can be used to assert the factors that lead many coffee areas to create coffee tourism goods or products and organize coffee festivities and events. As a result, niche tourism is viewed as a reaction to a growing number of intelligent visitors who want specialized tourism goods. It’s a way for places to concentrate their services in order to distinguish their tourist goods and compete in a crowded and competitive tourism market.
5. Recent New Product Innovations
Coffee tourism mainly promotes the development of the coffee industry in coffee producing regions, which allows coffee lovers to discover the origins of coffee, wonderful scenery and the unique natural environment of coffee regions (Bird’s Nest Safaris, n.d.) . In traditional coffee tours, organizers encourage visitors to buy coffee products after learning about the history and variety of coffee (Lyon, 2013) , which only promotes the development of the coffee industry in coffee producing areas, and does not derive from the coffee industry to the development of other industries. However, the recent innovation of coffee tourism has derived coffee tourism as a type of additional industry, like the coffee spa. With the development of economy and society, people’s demand for wellness tourism and health requirements in the past few years has been getting higher and higher (Árpási, 2018) . According to the American Chemical Society (2005) , coffee contains a higher percentage of antioxidant sources and is more popular than other antioxidant-rich beverages such as tea and wine in the United States. The caffeine contained in coffee is the most natural body dehydrator, which can remove excess water from the body and eliminate edema (Wilson, 2018) . As a new product of coffee tourism, the coffee spa undoubtedly breaks people’s traditional impression of coffee tourism. Through massage, bath and other ways, customers can enjoy the beauty effect brought by coffee spa, while enjoying the smell, touch and spiritual enjoyment brought by coffee and coffee beans (McCave, 2017) . For example, Costa Rica Marriott Hotel San Jose’s Kuö Spa mixes coffee beans from the hotel’s nearby plantation into a special Costa Rican Coffee Scrub, and the hotel is designed based on the local coffee plantation and the local volcano, offering guests a unique and elegant hospitality experience of a 16th century colonial estate (Stritt, 2013) . Yunessun Spa in Japan, on the other hand, provides customers with coffee bath, which not only allows coffee lovers to bathe in the coffee, but also interprets the unique interpretation of the Japanese traditional bath house, which has a certain promotion effect on the local culture (Moore, 2018) . Therefore, as an effective way of slimming and beauty, the coffee spa can promote cross-industry development, meet customers’ demand for novel travel experience, and promote the spread of local culture, which has a great commercial potential.
According to WTTC (2019) , one of the major trends in tourism development is authentic experience. With the third wave of coffee, customers are becoming more interested in the quality of coffee beans, where it is produced and how it is made (Boaventura et al., 2018) . Customers want to be able to participate in the process of coffee production and production, especially to visit the coffee farm (Candelo et al., 2019) . As a result, a series of coffee experience tourism came into being, including coffee roasting experience, coffee making learning, coffee cultivation knowledge learning, and tasting of different kinds of coffee. As a matter of fact, an immersive experience can be easily achieved by simply ordering a cup of coffee. For example: Ideum partnered with Starbuck to turn humble tables into touch-screen experiences where visitors can explore and learn more about the coffee they’re drinking, from tasting notes to provenal details (Ideum, n.d.) . This action is very educational and can increase customers’ interest in different kinds of coffee while experiencing the taste of coffee as well as promote the sales of coffee itself. Wang et al. (2019) point out that interactive activities such as coffee farm tours, bean picking, and exclusive roasting on coffee farms create unforgettable memories that increase customer satisfaction. Experiential coffee tourism can promote the sales of coffee, which can not only bring customers unique travel experience, but also effectively promote the development of the local economy and society (Chen et al., 2021) . Therefore, experiential coffee tourism as an innovative product can not only provide customers with a unique experience, but also pull the local economy.
6. Potential Future Directions and Micro-Niche Markets
The Future Wheel (Figure 1) is an effective tool to help scholars identify visual trends or temporal outcomes, which systematically brainstorm the direct and indirect impacts of future trends or technologies (Benckendorff, 2008) .
6.1. The Trend of Sustainable Development
The development of coffee tourism can bring considerable economic benefits to the tourist destination, as well as a series of negative impacts on the local environment,
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Figure 1. The future wheel of sustainable development.
society and culture (Lyon, 2013) . Faced with escalating environmental risks, tourists gradually realize the limitation of resources and begin to seek more ethical and resource-saving ways to travel, which is one of the five mega trends for the future development of tourism (WTTC, 2019) .
It is shown that an increasing number of food lovers are concerning about food waste, environmental pollution from beverage packaging and the ethics of animal welfare during their tour (Wolf, 2020) . As a major consumer group in today’s travel industry, Millennials also have a strong focus on sustainable businesses. According to Swiss Education Group (2020) , 63 percent of Millennials prefer to eat at places that demonstrate social responsibility. In coffee tasting, coffee lovers’ demand pattern for coffee has also changed. For example, coffee is sweetened with products that are less chemically contaminated, such as agave syrup, honey and maple syrup (Biome, 2018) . People no longer focus on the coffee experience, but on the production of coffee itself and the sustainable development of the origin of coffee (Boaventura et al., 2018) . Therefore, the trend of sustainable development has two major impacts on coffee tourism. One is the change of tourists’ demand pattern, and another is the increasing desire of tourists for a sustainable coffee tourism experience, which will contribute to the micro-niche markets of coffee ecotourism and sustainable coffee tourism.
With the increasing demand of tourists for sustainable activities, tourism destinations or tourism organizers must ensure the sustainable operation of activities. This requires sustainable development alliances with relevant qualifications to supervise and monitor events or coffee products. For example, international authorities such as Rainforest Alliance are responsible for the management and quality testing of pesticides and fertilizers used in the cultivation of coffee beans as well as the certification of environmentally friendly quality coffee beans, which can effectively support the sustainable development of the coffee industry (Rainforest Alliance, 2021) . In addition, due to the increasing demand for tourism experience, organizations with a sustainable development certificate are more popular than ordinary tourism organizations. Therefore, a sustainable development certificate will be seen as an advantage to promote the development of tourism organizations or destinations. More demands also mean more manpower training and investment.
6.2. The Trend of Reality Enhanced
Authentic experience is another major trend in the future development of coffee tourism. According to WTTC (2019) , global spending in the experience economy is expected to reach $8.2 trillion by 2028.
As shown in Figure 2, the trend of reality enhanced has two major impacts on coffee tourism, namely, the increased demand for interactive experience and the development of virtual tourism. Advances in technology, especially AR and VR
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Figure 2. The future wheel of reality enhanced.
experiences, have blurred the lines between online and offline travel activities. The outbreak of the world pandemic in early 2020 has also given a boost to virtual online travel (Compton, 2021) . Through virtual tourism, customers can vividly understand the attractions of tourist destinations, which can bring customers with novel travel experience through innovative technology. It can ignore geographical and time restrictions, which is undoubtedly a good blessing for international tourists. Although some VR and AR tourism products may be expensive and hard to realize due to the requirement of certain technical content and staff training, virtual coffee tourism is undoubtedly a possibility for the future development of coffee tourism. Experiential coffee tourism is another development possibility under the trend of pursuing authentic travel experience. The pursuit of authenticity has led people to choose to return to the product’s origin, such as a higher demand for cooking school experiences, gardening workshops or the opportunity to pick their own food. These experiential tours can undoubtedly strengthen the connection between people and the destination and promote local development.
7. Case Study
Yunnan is a large province of coffee production, despite the excellent quality of coffee. Before the introduction of coffee tourism as a special interest tourism, Yunnan’s economic conditions were relatively backward compared with coastal provinces in China such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu due to its geographical location and policy development. With the advent of the high-speed railway era in Yunnan and the promotion of regional tourism, Yunnan’s coffee industry has taken advantage of the construction of Yunnan’s regional tourism and gained new development by creating coffee industry-dependent regional leisure agriculture tourism. According to the report in 2022, the railway mileage in Yunnan is about 5000 km, and it has a road network with the coexistence of standard gauge, meter gauge and inch gauge (Pengpai, 2022) . It is specially used for main lines such as the meter-gauge Kunhe River and Mengbao. In 2023, Yunnan is expected to complete a comprehensive transportation investment of 320 billion yuan. It will focus on ongoing construction and promote new openings, and accelerate the construction progress of the remaining projects under construction of “Nengtong All Access” and the construction of “Interconnection” projects. The construction will be international, radiate the whole country, the postal express delivery network covering the whole province (Fu et al., 2023) . The convenience of transportation not only means that the coffee beans needed by Yunnan coffee, as well as the planting, cultivation and production facilities can be combined with the world’s advanced technology, but also means the expansion of the coffee tourism market, and more tourists can come to Yunnan coffee tourism through high-speed rail. The coffee industry has become the characteristic industrial support for the construction of tourism in Yunnan. The construction of region-wide tourism requires the integration of regional economic and social resources, especially tourism resources, and the optimization and enhancement of related industries, ecological environment, public services, institutional mechanisms, policies and regulations, and the quality of civilization in an all-round and systematic way to realize the organic integration of regional resources and the development of industrial integration. Launching the construction of coffee-themed regional all-area tourism will promote the comprehensive development of coffee-producing areas and inject new vitality into the development of the coffee industry.
Yunnan introduced coffee in 1902, and industrial development began in 1990 (Lin & Mo, 2018) . After years of development, the coffee industry has become one of the essential characteristic advantageous industries in Yunnan Province and a pillar backbone industry to promote Yunnan’s agricultural and rural economic development, increase farmers’ income, and the prosperity and stability of the border. As of 2016, Yunnan’s coffee cultivation area is nearly 2 million acre, with an output of nearly 140,000 tons, accounting for more than 98% of the country’s area and output, and has become the largest coffee producing area in the country (Feng et al., 2016) . Yunnan coffee is mainly distributed in Pu’er, Dehong, Baoshan, and Lincang, which have suitable ecological environments and diverse ethnic cultures and are places that most urbanites currently aspire to (Zhou, 2016) . Due to the long coffee industry chain covering one, two, and three industries, the production process from seeds to cups can be an option for people’s cultural tourism; from coffee plantations to cafes, all of them can serve as ideal leisure places for people. Therefore, among the existing tourism resources in Yunnan, leisure agriculture with coffee culture as the theme has become the carrier of Yunnan’s regional characteristic all-area tourism. As a significant tourism province, Yunnan receives an increasing number of tourists every year. According to the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Statistics (n.d.) , Yunnan province received 431 million tourists from home and abroad, with a total tourism revenue of 472.625 billion yuan in 2016. In 2017, Yunnan Province achieved a total tourism revenue of 692.223 billion yuan, up 46.5% year on year, and received 567 million domestic tourists, up 33.3% year on year. In 2018, the overall growth rate of Yunnan’s tourism industry exceeded the national average, with a total of 664 million tourist visits, an increase of 17%; total tourism revenue reached 845 billion yuan, up 22 percent. From 2019 to 2021, due to the impact of the epidemic, the tourist population and tourist consumption amount declined. However, as of August 20, 2022, a total of 359 million trips were made in Yunnan province, an increase of 17 percent over the previous year. And with China’s comprehensive opening up policy, Yunnan will welcome more tourists. The construction of a radiation center for the South and Southeast Asia has made Yunnan a gateway to South and Southeast Asia for its nationals because of coffee-based tourism (Tao & Poungchompu, 2018) . All these will make Yunnan coffee known and needed by more consumers. The construction of coffee-themed regional tourism will allow more people to learn more about coffee, consume it and enjoy it, and expand the visibility and influence of Yunnan coffee.
The application of coffee tourism can effectively promote Yunnan’s economic and social development, according to the above study. Coffee tourism is implemented through the Yunnan community through the whole area tourism strategy. Yunnan’s tourism economy is thus proliferating, and how coffee tourism will adapt to the telling development of the economy in the future is worth looking forward to and planning. Therefore, the implementation of coffee tourism has a substantial impact and significance for community development.
8. Conclusion
In a nutshell, as a valuable niche market, coffee has become a magnet for consumers and has grown exponentially in recent decades. Coffee tourism took shape in the late 1990s. With the development of social economy and communication and transportation technology, customers’ demand for coffee and other special interests has promoted the emergence of coffee and its micro-niche market. According to scholars for coffee tourism research in nearly a decade, the development of coffee tourism may cause the exploitation of the local culture and other negative effects, but the potential of the negative impact of this small area, and cannot deny the positive impact of coffee tourism in the development of local economic and cultural diversity, community welfare improvement, local residents’ employment promotion and the building of destination image. They also found that coffee and its micro-niches are based on interest in coffee lovers. The report points out that coffee tourism can be divided into the visit of coffee making, coffee growing, coffee history and culture, coffee tasting and other micro niches according to different coffee interests of tourists. In addition, the report describes two innovative products of coffee tourism, namely, the coffee spa and coffee immersion tourism, both of which have effectively boosted local economic and cultural development. This paper also uses Future Wheels to clearly explain the development potential of coffee tourism and its micro-niche market under the trend of pursuing sustainable development and authentic experience. Finally, this paper takes the development of coffee tourism in Yunnan Province of China as an example to describe the role of coffee and the opportunity of tourism in economic and cultural tourism destinations: by creating regional leisure agricultural tourism based on the coffee industry, thereby attracting new tourists and promoting the development of tourism; and promote the overall development of coffee-producing areas by launching coffee-themed regional and global tourism construction, and inject new vitality into the development of the local coffee industry, thus proving the feasibility of coffee tourism in the development of tourism in the region.