Over 11 per cent growth in visa on arrival scheme

Maximum tourists from New Zealand availed the Visa on Arrival (VoAs) facility, followed by the Japanese and Filipinos in November this year.
According to the Tourism Ministry data, during November, total number of 1,824 VoAs were issued as compared to 1,630 during November, 2012, showing an increase of 11.9 per cent.
While 424 tourists from New Zealand availed the scheme in this period, followed by Japan (400) and the Philippines (326), only two from Laos and nine from Luxembourg.
A total of 264 tourists from Singapore and 244 Indonesians availed the facility.
There were total number of 17,594 VoAs issued from January to November this year as compared to 13,903 VoAs during the corresponding period last year, registering a growth of 26.5 per cent.

As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, government has launched the Visa on Arrival scheme for 11 countries including Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar visiting India for tourism purposes.