TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR TRICHURAPALLI

Abstract

Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), located at the geographic heart of Tamil Nadu, is one of South India's foremost pilgrimage and heritage tourism destinations. The city anchors the Cauvery Delta region, hosting globally significant religious sites—including the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, which is the world's largest functioning Hindu temple complex spanning 156 acres—alongside rich ecological assets along the Cauvery and Kollidam rivers. Despite this remarkable concentration of tourism assets, the city has historically functioned more as a transit node than a destination in its own right, lacking a unified and integrated tourism planning framework. This thesis presents an Integrated Tourism Development Plan (ITDP) for Tiruchirappalli, proposing a comprehensive, evidence-based framework for transforming the city into a world-class, sustainable heritage tourism destination by 2045. The study covers five key sites representing the full spectrum of Trichy's tourism potential: Rockfort Temple (sacred heritage), Srirangam Temple (pilgrimage), St. Lourdes Church (colonial-religious heritage), Mukkombu Barrage (hydraulic heritage and eco-leisure), and the Tropical Butterfly Conservatory, or Birds and Butterfly Park (eco-tourism and environmental education). The methodology adopts a structured, data-driven planning approach integrating spatial analysis, field-based surveys, statistical assessment of tourism trends, infrastructure gap analysis, and alignment with prevailing policy frameworks, including the Tamil Nadu Integrated Tourism Promotion Project (TNITPP) 2024, the Tiruchirappalli Master Plan 2045, and the Tamil Nadu State Tourism Policy 2023. Tourist footfall data reveals that arrivals reached 2.49 crore in 2023 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.3 percent, and projections indicate 6.66 crore visitors by 2045—necessitating proactive spatial, infrastructure, and accommodation planning. The plan identifies critical challenges, including a current deficit of 259 hotel rooms (escalating to 21,204). by 2045), inadequate last-mile connectivity to ecotourism sites, overcrowding at heritage precincts, and a fragmented visitor experience. In response, four integrated intervention streams are proposed: (P1) a Unified Eco-Heritage Tourism Circuit with Hop-On Hop-Off (HOHO) Electric Vehicle bus service (P2) Riverfront and Flood Management along the Cauvery and Kollidam; (P3) AI-enabled Crowd and Heritage Management systems; and (P4) Eco-Tourism Infrastructure and Accommodation development. Implementation follows a phased strategy aligned with TNITPP's Flagship Hub designation and is supported by a multi-stakeholder governance framework incorporating public-private partnerships.