Entrepreneurship In The Tourism Industry - Issues Pertaining To SME’s: A Study Of Small And Medium Hotel Operators In Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Tourism is an important activity in socio and economic development of people. It is the movement of people from their usual residence to some tourist attraction for leisure. The first tourism department was started on 1^ST March 1958 under the Ministry of Transport[i]. Then the government of India has established separate Ministry for Tourism in the year 1967[ii]. Since 1971, the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) is involving in the developmental activities of tourism in Tamil Nadu. TTDC is mainly focusing on providing infrastructure facilities of transport and accommodation. Among the different states in India, Tamil Nadu is pioneering in tourism business by attracting 60.73 lakhs of international tourists and 3859.09 lakhs of domestic tourists in the year 2018[iii]. The main components of the tourism are Attraction, Accommodation, Accessibility and Amenities. The major tourism attractions or tourism products in Tamil Nadu are Beaches, mountains, heritage sites, Museums, Zoos, National parks, Cultural centers, and Nature tourism sites. The accommodations for the tourists are available in the form of Hotels, Motels, Resorts, Service apartments, Guest houses etc. Hotel operators play major role in the tourism industry. The small and medium hotel operators are main entrepreneurs in the tourism industry and providing accommodation and food services to the tourists. By considering the hotel operators role in tourism industry, it is decided to explore the issues related to small and medium hotel entrepreneurs. The main objective of this study is to assess the profile of the hotel operators, entrepreneurial characteristics, financial issues, marketing development and general problems encountered by operators.