Sustainable Tourism Development: Prospects and Challenges in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2014 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: Tourism is making much advancement with the deregulation of the airline industry, coupled with technological advancement and attitudinal changes of people. Consequently, more tourism destinations are being promoted globally for socio-economic development through the revenue generated by it. The tag of UNESCO-enlisted WHS is used as a powerful instrument for tourism campaigns. Nevertheless, the WHS belongs to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located. All those sites have become assets for the tourism industry in many countries. On the one hand, tourism provides financial support to preserve these sites. On the other hand, uncontrolled tourism practices cause severe socio-cultural impacts by compromising its OUV. Therefore, a balance between tourism development and protection of WHS must be ensured by evolving a model to promote and sustain tourism in the destination Mahabalipuram.
Hoteliers have utterly failed in the duty of sharing resources for protection of ecology and environment. However, different categories of accommodation operators are driven towards maximizing profits without having concern for sustainable tourism development. Majority of hoteliers are more tourists centric without adhering to the environmental management practices directly leading to depletion of resources. Thus, questions for the sustainability of Mahabalipuram as tourism destination need to be answered with proper justification. In order to find practical solutions for sustainable tourism development, perceptions of residents and tourists have been studied to guide planners to implement the principles of sustainable tourism. An in-depth study with the following objectives has revealed several hidden obstructions for the development of tourism in a sustainable manner.