E-Tourist Visa Scheme Registers 2713 Per Cent Growth in November

UK Continues to Occupy Top Spot Followed by USA, France and Germany amongst the Countries availing E-Tourist Visa Facility

Total of 83,501 foreign tourists arrived in the country on E-Tourist Visa in November 2015 as compared to 2,968 during the month of October, 2014 registering a growth of 2713.4%. UK continues to occupy top spot followed by USA, France and Germany amongst the countries availing E-tourist visa facility

The following are the other important highlights of E-Tourist Visa during November, 2015:

(i) During January-November, 2015 a total of 3,41,683 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 24,963 during January-November, 2014 registering a growth of 1268.8% . 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.

(ii) The percentage shares of top 10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facilities during November, 2015 were as follows:

UK (23.93%), USA (16.33%), Russian Fed. (8.17%), France (7.64%), Germany (5.60%), Australia (4.82%), Canada (4.71%), China (3.26%), Ukraine (2.03%) and Netherlands (1.75%).

(iii) The percentage shares of top 10 ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during November, 2015 were as follows:

New Delhi Airport (45.04%), Mumbai Airport (17.72%), Goa Airport (14.62%), Bengaluru Airport (5.57%), Chennai Airport (5.16%), Kochi Airport (3.56%), Kolkata Airport (2.27%), Hyderabad Airport (2.19%), Trivandrum Airport (1.44%) and Ahmadabad Airport (0.93%).

Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), presently known as E-Tourist Visa scheme was launched on November 27, 2014. At present e-Tourist Visa facility is available for citizens of 113 countries arriving at 16 Airports in India. E-Tourist Visa fee structure has been revised w.e.f November 03, 2015 by clubbing the 113 countries into four groups for charging differential rates viz. US$ 0, US$ 25, US$ 48 and US$ 60. Bank charges have also been reduced from US$ 2 to 2.5% of the e-Tourist Visa fees.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News