Working on providing visa-on-arrival on reciprocal basis: Tourism minister

The minister stated that the government was also working on further easing visa processing by reducing the time taken to apply for e-visas, which will also make travel easier for foreign tourists

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India has started working on providing visa-on-arrival on a reciprocal basis, where countries that offer the facility to Indian tourists would get the same benefit when tourists from their countries visit India, Minister of Tourism and Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said at the CII India Edge event in New Delhi on Wednesday.

 

“We've started work on ways to provide visa-on-arrival on a reciprocal basis to those countries that provide Indians with visa-on-arrival,” he said. India offers visa-on-arrival to passport holders of Japan, South Korea, the Maldives and the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, Indian passport holders can obtain visa-on-arrival in over 35 countries, including Thailand, the Maldives, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Iran, and several African and Oceania nations.

 

The minister further stated that the government was also working on further easing visa processing by reducing the time taken to apply for e-visas, which will also make travel easier for foreign tourists.

 

According to data from the Ministry of Tourism, foreign tourist arrivals stood at 5.6 million as of August 2025, below the 6.3 million recorded in the same period last year. The numbers peaked at 10.93 million in 2019 before the pandemic, rebounding to 6.44 million in 2022, to 9.52 million in 2023, and 9.95 million in 2024.