Compared to Oct 2015, 86.4% rise in e-visa tourists last month

Over 1 lakh tourists arrived in India on e-tourist visa in October, registering a whopping growth of 86.4 per cent over the corresponding month last year.
The UK continues to occupy the top slot among the countries availing the e-tourist visa facility, followed by the US and France.
"A total of 1,05,268 foreign tourists arrived in October 2016 on e-tourist visa as compared to 56,477 during the month of October 2015, registering a growth of 86.4 per cent," an official release said.
Launched on November 27, 2014, the facility was available for citizens of 113 countries arriving at 16 airports in India till February 25. It was extended for citizens of 37 more countries from February 26.

Among the top 10 source countries availing the facility in October, the UK share was maximum at 22.9 per cent, followed by the US (12.1 per cent), France (6.6 per cent), China (5.8 per cent) and Russia (5.6 per cent).
The share of Germany was 5.5 per cent, while that of Australia (4.5 per cent), Canada (3.6 per cent), Spain (2.3 per cent) and the Netherlands (2.1 per cent).

"This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-tourist visa for 150 countries as against the earlier coverage of 113 countries," the release said.
During January-October 2016, a total of 7,80,570 tourist arrived on e-tourist visa as compared to 2,58,182 during the corresponding period last year, recording a growth of 202.3 per cent.

Among the top 10 airports, where tourists availing online facility arrived, during the last month, the New Delhi Airport share was highest with 51.67 per cent, followed by Mumbai Airport (18.65 per cent), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (6.20 per cent), Bengaluru Airport (5.18 per cent) and Chennai Airport (4.97 per cent).
The share of Kochi Airport was 3.15 per cent, while that of Amritsar Airport 2.42 per cent, Hyderabad Airport 2.18 per cent, Kolkata Airport 2.08 per cent and Trivandrum Airport 1.28 per cent.