Hospitality services are playing an important role in the Indian economy. This industry is also facing many problems which must be considered very seriously. The present study covers the role of hotel services in Tamil Nadu and the impact of tourism in India's economic development. The present condition of this industry shows that India has got bright future, because of the tremendous developments taking place in this service industry.

Sky is the limit for marketing services. Almost all the countries of the world, of late, have been assigning transcendental priority to the development of services sector. The task of marketers is to make the innovative efforts more and more competitive which requires world class professionalism and it also needs to fuel the process of development. The public as well as the private sector, the domestic as well as the foreign companies, the national as well as the multinationals need to focus on the services sector.

During the past decade, services have increasingly assumed an important role in the Indian economy. Hotels are a major service industry in India. Their significance is undoubted. A number of international hotel chains have come to India, either independently or with a tie-up with an Indian partner. The Government of India's tourism department has also realized their importance and started classifying them on the basis of the standard of their facilities. An effort is also being made to promote India through its tourist offices all over the world.

In the Indian perspective, we find Seventh Five Year Plan as watershed in the development of tourism industry. For the first time, the vast potential of tourism as a foreign exchange earner and generator of employment opportunities was recognized. Several policy initiatives were taken to develop the tourism sector. In the development of tourism, the public sector has made a significant contribution. Of late, the industry is equipped with a reasonable infrastructural base and is poised for a self-sustained growth. The future growth of tourism is required to be activated with the support of the private sector. The strategy for the development of tourism is required to be designed on the basis of low-cost economy, higher level of productivity, efficiency in the use of infrastructure and sophisticated tourist facilities. In the Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97), the special tourism areas had been selected, and during the Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002), we looked forward to energizing the process of development, but the image problem was found to be complicating the task of professionals.

Management Research Journal, Hospitality Services, Tamil Nadu Tourism, Indian Economy, Economic Development, Marketing Services, Foreign Companies, Tourism Industry, Metropolitan Regions, Employment Orientation, Promotional Methods, Foreign Exchange Earnings, Vegetarian Hotels, Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation, Government Agencies, Water Transportation.