Sustainable tourism has increasingly emerged as a strategic approach for achieving balanced regional development, environmental conservation, and socio-cultural preservation. Agro-heritage tourism represents a growing niche within sustainable tourism that integrates agricultural landscapes, traditional knowledge systems, and experiential tourism activities. Tea tourism, particularly in the Darjeeling Himalayan region of India, offers a unique case for examining the intersection between agricultural heritage, tourism development, and sustainability transitions. This study investigates the contribution of tea tourism to sustainable community development within tea plantation landscapes. Using a qualitative exploratory research design, the study synthesizes academic literature, tourism policy documents, and regional case evidence to analyze the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental implications of tea tourism. The findings reveal that tea tourism contributes to livelihood diversification, heritage conservation, and landscape preservation while enhancing community participation and local identity. However, several challenges—including climate change impacts on tea cultivation, infrastructural limitations, and unequal distribution of tourism benefits—continue to influence the sustainability of tea tourism initiatives. Based on the findings, the study proposes a conceptual sustainability framework that integrates agro-heritage tourism with community-based development strategies and environmental stewardship. The research contributes to the expanding discourse on sustainable tourism by demonstrating how tea tourism can support multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to sustainable communities, responsible consumption, and decent work. The study offers policy recommendations for integrating agro-heritage tourism into sustainable regional development strategies in plantation landscapes.