GoI's e-Tourist Visa shows an increase of 893pc this year

BANGALORE, INDIA: Government of India launched Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), presently known as e-Tourist Visa scheme on 27th November 2014.

Nearly One Lakh Seventy Thousand Tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa during Jan-Aug 2015 showing an increase of 893% over the same period last year.

At present e-Tourist Visa facility is available for citizens of 113 countries (including 36 countries for which the facility was extended on 15th August, 2015) arriving at 16 Airports in India (includes 7 airports added from 15th August, 2015).

The Government made few important highlights on  e-Tourist Visa during August, 2015:

(i) During the month of August, 2015 a total of 22,286 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,705 during the month of August, 2014 registering a growth of 723.9pc.

(ii) During January- August, 2015 a total of 1,69,976 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 17,120 during January-August, 2014 registering a growth of 892.9pc .

(iii) This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 113 countries as against coverage of earlier TVoA scheme for 12 countries.

(iv) The percentage shares of top 10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facility during August 2015 were as follows:

USA (25.93pc), Germany (10.00pc), UAE (8.92pc), France (8.76pc), Australia (7.20pc), Canada (6.39pc), Republic of Korea (4.23pc), Japan (3.41pc), Russian Federation (2.37pc) and Singapore (2.22pc).