Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi airports to provide hassle-free visa

Effective from Nov 27, the visa will allow tourists to apply and pay fee for online visa without having to travel to the Indian Missions in their home countries

International tourists from 43 countries bound to Kerala for holiday making will now get tourist visa-on-arrival (TVoA) enabled with ETA (electronic travel authorisation) at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi international airports.

Effective from November 27, the TVoA, enabled with ETA, will allow tourists to apply and pay fee for the online visa without having to travel to the Indian Missions in their home countries.

Approved applicants will now receive the official travel authorisation through an email and a printed copy of this to the immigration authorities upon their arrival in India would complete the authorisation.

Kerala is the only state to have two airports where the service has been introduced, while the Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi airports are among the nine in the country to offer this facility.

Discussions are currently underway to introduce it at the Kozhikode airport as well.

The TVoA enabled with ETA is being implemented in phases and is being made available initially to citizens of 43 countries, including 12 that were previously eligible for a tourist-visa on-arrival.

Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Papua & New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, Ukraine, USA, Vietnam and Vanuatu have been covered.

AP Anilkumar, minister for Tourism said the new facility will make travelling to Kerala hassle-free for citizens of these countries. The Kerala tourism department will ensure the potential visitors are aware of this advantage by intensifying promotional campaigns there.

"Some of our key markets such as Germany, Australia, Japan, Russia, USA and UAE are also on the list, which will be a great boost to tourism, he added.

Kerala Tourism has set a target of 3 million tourist inflows by 2021. It has been successfully pitching the visa-on-arrival facility through promotional campaigns worldwide. It took part in the JATA Tourism Expo for the second year in 2014 and had organised road shows in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Russia.

Kerala Tourism director PI Sheik Pareeth said convenient travel facilities coupled with focus on infrastructure building and quality services should help the state maintain its status as one of the leading tourism destinations in the world.

Since August 2014, when the TVoA facility was first introduced at the Thiruvananthapuram airport, roughly 250 sft holding area has been set aside in the immigration section and the exclusive visa desks have been manned by Intelligence Bureau officials.

Special enclosures have been built for photographing visitors, displays, signages and foreign exchange counters had been set up at the facility.

New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Goa are the other airports that currently offer the TVoA enabled with ETA service.