Booming tourism industry: Call of the Tamil land

CHENNAI: You will be surprised to know how much conventional wisdom can go wrong. What if one asks you about the topmost industry in Tamil Nadu’s employment generation? Some of you might say it is the booming IT and ITES industry. Some others might point to the State, especially the capital city Chennai, as an automobile hub. But one industry that has silently contributed to jobs is the tourism sector.

The industry is creating jobs in myriad allied sectors such as the hotel industry, hospitality industry, entertainment and transportation. For those with an interest in trying new challenging tasks and learning new skills, tourism is the sector.

A senior official from the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department said tourism and its supporting industries will employ at least 25 lakh people in Tamil Nadu over the next four years. “There is a plan to facilitate skill development of 3 lakh workers in tourism and its supporting industries,” he said. Tamil Nadu tourism is expected to contribute at least 12% of the State GSDP annually over the next five years, according to estimates pointing out the potential.

Myriad employment opportunities

Job generation in the tourism sector could be direct or indirect. Direct employment refers to the total number of jobs generated by the travel and tourism sector.

“Direct Jobs provided by star and medium hotels, restaurant chains, tourist operators, tourism information offices, museums, national parks, amusement parks, protected palaces and mahals, religious sites, monuments places, shopping malls, photography and farmhouses come under this category,” says G Prakash Kumar, a leading travel operator in the city said.

According to him, large numbers of administration personnel are also required to work as accountants and personal assistants. “Semi-skilled workers such as kitchen maids, gardeners and porters also get direct jobs,” he added.

He said the availability of indirect employment includes suppliers for hotels, construction organisations that build and maintain tourist facilities and necessary infrastructure, handloom and handicrafts artisans, marketing personnel and food supply. Prakash said according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, in 2028, travel and tourism will account for 3.30 crore jobs directly, an increase of 2.1% per annum over the next four years starting from 2024.

“In 2023, the travel and tourism sector contributed 9.1% to the global GDP, marking a 23.2% increase from 2022”, he said. Similarly, the tourism sector generated 27 million new jobs in 2023, a 9.1% rise compared to the previous year, he added.

A top official of the TTDC pointed out the state’s focus on 12 types of tourism themes such as adventure, recreation, caravan, rural and plantation, coastal, cultural, medical and wellness, religious and eco-based, among others. The conduct of meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and film shoots also come under tourism.

The official said the focus will be on raising awareness among local communities about the income and employment prospects presented by tourism. simultaneously, the tourism industry will be educated about the skill sets available within the local community and the advantages of employing locals and supporting local products, he added.

Government tie-ups with private partners

Periodic education drives will be conducted across Tamil Nadu to build a large pool of workforce with basic skills, suitable for a large number of entry-level jobs in various segments, sources said.

Satellite centres have been proposed to be set up in rural and tribal hinterlands to impart quality training to create a trained resource pool of service personnel engaged in tourism and related activities, the TTDC official said. “This includes training for service providers. It could be a job role for waiters, receptionists or monument guides”, he said. Special modules are also designed by the government for niche tourism services.

In addition, Tamil Nadu’s tourism stakeholders are set to launch the Tamil Nadu Travel Expo (TTE) in 2024, September. “This is a buyer-seller meet organised by Travel Club, Madurai, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and South India Hotels and Restaurants Association (SIHRA), jointly with support from the Department of Tourism, Tamil Nadu, and the Ministry of Tourism,” T Nataraajan, the Honorary Secretary of South India Hotels and Restaurants Association (SIHRA) and convenor of the meet, said.