Johannesburg - India’s tourist numbers have jumped dramatically from a year ago – by almost 1 000 percent – thanks to the e-tourist visa, introduced nine months ago.
The Indian government launched the e-visa programme for the citizens of 43 countries on November 27 and for a further 33 nationalities in April and June.
According to Gulf News, the new visa regime led to a spike in the number of e-visa arrivals in India, with 126 214 tourists registering for the online entry system in the first half of this year – compared with just 11 953 in January to June last year and showing 955.9 percent growth.
In June, 15 557 foreigners secured e-tourist visas, compared with 2 112 in the same month last year.
Under the e-tourist visa scheme, a foreign tourist can apply for a visa by uploading his or her passport and photograph and paying visa fees online.
Authorities process the application and send an electronic travel authorisation, or e-visa, through e-mail within 72 hours.
Most of the tourists were from the US (41.71 percent).
The next-highest proportion was from Australia (9.67 percent) and Germany (7.21 percent).
Other significant arrivals were from Canada (4.86 percent), South Korea (4.29 percent), France (3.38 percent), Singapore (2.73 percent), United Arab Emirates (2.70 percent), Russian Federation (2.53 percent) and Mexico (2.47 percent), tourism ministry data shows.
The high growth is being attributed to the introduction of the e-tourist visa for 76 countries, as compared with the visa-on-arrival scheme for 12 countries.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the government is to extend the e-tourist visas to 150 countries in its bid to boost tourism in India.
In June, the government added nine more airports – Jaipur, Amritsar, Gaya, Lucknow, Trichy, Varanasi and Ahmedabad – to those that could issue e-tourist visas. The airports have been chosen due to the large number of foreign tourists they receive on account of their proximity to major tourist spots.
Saturday Star