Foreign tourist arrivals in India have grown nine fold on the back of the Government’s rollout of the e-Tourist visa.
“During January-August, 2015, as many as 169,976 tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa compared with 17,120 during January-August, 2014 registering a growth of 893 per cent,” a statement from the Ministry of Tourism said.
This growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 113 countries as against coverage of earlier Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) scheme for 12 countries.
Government of India launched TVoA enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (also known as e-Tourist visa) scheme on November 27, 2014.
At present e-Tourist visa is available for citizens of 113 countries (including 36 countries for which the facility was extended on August 15, 2015).