Kanchipuram is a melting pot of rich culture,heritage and age old

traditions. As a city through the years, it has acquired many layers,which now forms a diverse whole.These layers of diversity in culture,religion and heritage has led to the emergence of the city with a mixture of historical past,dynamic present and an aspirational future. This living city which had earlier been flourished by trade and commerce,is now slowly changing its phase into a heritage town,thus creating a niche for itself in the world tourism.The way of living of any person in this exuberant city,is directly or indirectly inter-twined with the existing tourism. This inter relationship and co-dependancy is what actually makes the city more vibrant and thriving. The tourism thus plays a vital role in enhancing the overall outlook of the entire city. The city not only projects itself as a magnet in terms of the architectural ,religious and the cultural values of the temples alone,it has a wide scope of evincing its other aspects such as the way of living,the tradition ,the crafts etc; existing even in the present day world. It calls in generating a tourism which tends to create a holistic experience of the journey which they adopt in the city, along with the basic amenities and infrastructure to susbstantiate their needs.

Due to the recent influx in tourism,the city might reach its saturation point in the forthcoming years.Thus, it calls for a conscious effort to regulate and improvise on tourism rather than adding on to the present level of tourism. These interventions could range from a very microscopic to a macro level solutions attributing to the functional as well as aesthetic value addition to the city as a whole .Hence the focous is in the areas of tourism,heritage and development,which are the important factors ,whose inter-relationship create a holistic experience of the city.

A.M.Abisha Teslin Dhas A.Shruthi Thiruvengadam