ABSTRACT
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes, usually of a limited duration. Tourism is commonly associated with trans-national travel, but may also refer to travel to another location within the same country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes" Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. It can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Today, tourism is major source of income for many countries, and affects the economy of both the source and host countries, in some cases it is of vital importance. Today, tourism studies mean the multi-disciplinary bundle of academic approaches in the sense of an undisguised "trans-discipline", which can find different applications. However, tourism studies do not exist as an integrated field of study. Instead, there are countless empirical accounts, case studies, approaches, theories and perspectives in individual disciplines, including economy, geography, psychology, architecture, ecology, sociology, political science and medicine. Tourism is vital for many countries, such as Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, Argentina, Mauritius, Malaysia, Oman, due to the large intake of money for businesses with their goods and services and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism..The researcher feels that Mahabalipuram has seen a quick development socially as Tourism & handicraft industry provides several job opportunities to the people. Even the opening of several beach resorts and hotels increased the transport facilities and tourist rates. The researcher is undertaking a qualitative analysis by taking in depth interviews using questionnaires from the local community and workers there to know about the role of tourism in social development. Keywords: Tourism, Social development, Hotels, Job opportunities & Environment friendly.