Employment Generation Through Tourism :A Comparative Study Of Mamallapuram And Vedanthangal

This paper intends to carry out a comparative analysis of employment generation in tourism in two unique destinations in Tamil Nadu: Mamallapuram, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its cultural and heritage tourism, and Vedanthangal, a famous bird sanctuary specializing in ecotourism. Through a scientific analysis of tourism infrastructure investments in terms of employment generation, this research intends to examine how these unique tourism models are contributing to economic development in Tamil Nadu. This paper also intends to develop a Tourism Employment Impact Framework (TEIF), in which employment generation in tourism will be categorized as direct employment, indirect employment, and induced employment. From this research analysis, it is evident that Mamallapuram has received a huge investment of ₹100 crore in terms of infrastructure development in tourism, with a total state tourism summit generating 127 MoUs worth ₹22,794 crore expected to generate around 66,000 jobs in Tamil Nadu. On the other hand, Vedanthangal, although on a smaller scale, plays an important role in providing livelihood support to local communities during the season through guiding, bird protection, and ecotourism-related ventures. The evaluation of the two destinations on five different parameters, namely scale of investment, employment, seasonality, community participation, and sustainability, reveals that heritage tourism destinations offer higher absolute employment opportunities, and ecotourism destinations offer localized benefits with lower infrastructure requirements. The study concludes that regional tourism development strategies should include both models in the state tourism policy, as in the case of Tamil Nadu, where 31 destinations have been identified in phases, covering categories like urban tourism, special experience tourism, and nature-based tourism.