The Government of India launched Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), presently known as e-Tourist Visa scheme, on 27th November 2014 for 43 countries. Tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa register a growth of 955.9% in January-June 2015 over the same period last year.
The Government extended this Scheme to the citizens of Guyana and Sri Lanka in January, 2015 and April, 2015 respectively. The e-Tourist Visa facility was further extended to the nationals of 31 countries in June, 2015.
The following are the important highlights of e-Tourist Visa during June, 2015:
- During the month of June, 2015 a total of 15,557 tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,112 during the month of June, 2014 registering a growth of 636.6%.
- During January-June, 2015 a total of 1,26,214 tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 11,953 during January-June, 2014 registering a growth of 955.9% .
- This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 76 countries as against coverage of earlier TVoA scheme for 12 countries.
- The percentage shares of top 10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facility during June 2015 were as follows:
USA (41.71%), Australia (9.67%), Germany (7.21%), Canada (4.86%), Republic of Korea (4.29%), France (3.38%), Singapore (2.73%), UAE (2.70%), Russian Federation (2.53%) and Mexico (2.47%).
- The percentage shares of different ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during June 2015 were as follows:
New Delhi (43.11%), Mumbai (22.27%), Bengaluru (11.70%), Chennai (9.83%), Hyderabad (4.85%), Kochi (3.83%), Kolkata (2.89%), Trivandrum (1.14%) and Goa (0.38%)
