Tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa during January-April, 2015 register a growth of 1086% over January-April, 2014

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 for 43 countries. The Government extended this Scheme to the citizens of Guyana and Sri Lanka in January, 2015 and April, 2015, respectively. The e-Tourist Visa facility is extended to the nationals of 31 countries in May, 2015.

The following are the important highlights of e-Tourist Visa during April, 2015:

(i) During the month of April 2015, a total of 19,139 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2167 of earlier TVoA Scheme during the month of April 2014, registering a growth of 783.2%.

(ii) During January- April 2015, a total of 94,998 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 8,008 of earlier TVoA Scheme during January- April 2014, registering a growth of 1086.3% .

(iii) This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 76 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 April 2015 were as follows:

USA (31.83%), Russian Federation (12.27%), Australia (11.42%), Germany (9.37%), Republic of Korea (4.67%), Ukraine (4.36%), Thailand (3.56%), Mexico (2.93%), New Zealand (2.67%) and Japan (2.37%).

(v) The percentage shares of different ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during April 2015 were as follows: New Delhi (45.69%), Mumbai (18.68%), Goa (10.91%), Bengaluru (6.80%), Chennai (6.47%), Kolkata (3.29%), Kochi (3.21%) , Hyderabad (3.07%) and Trivandrum (1.88%).

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