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France, Canada come under India's e-Tourist Visa ambit

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Sonal Desai
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MUMBAI, INDIA: In a bid to boost tourism and enable easy entry to the foreign tourists in the country, the Government of India extended its e-Tourist visa services to 31 more countries. These include France and Canada.

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The facility was in November 2014, for 45 countries from nine designated Indian airports. With the latest addition, the total number of countries under this scheme will go up to 76.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government wants to extend the scheme to 150 countries by the end of this fiscal year.

According to recent FICCI-EY knowledge paper, the Indian tourism and hospitality industry has emerged as the largest service sector in India.

More figures from India Tourism note that India sees the 11th largest tourist inflow in the Asia-Pacific region and the 42nd worldwide. The industry is flourishing due to an increase in foreign tourist arrivals and a larger number of Indians travelling to domestic destinations.

Tourist inflow into the country grew at 7 percent annually from 2010 to 2014. In 2013, India had 6.97 million registered foreign tourist arrivals 0.64 percent of the total foreign tourist traffic in the world. In 2014, the tourism sector contributed Rs 7.64 trillion to the GDP and provided employment to 36.7 million people. By the end of 2015, these numbers are expected to increase to Rs 8.22 trillion and 37.4 million respectively.

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