More than two lakh tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa during January-September 2015 showing an increase of 945.6 per cent over the same period last year. Highest number of tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa from USA during this period. Government of India launched Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), presently known as e-Tourist Visa scheme on November 27, 2014. At present e-Tourist Visa facility is available for citizens of 113 countries arriving at 16 Airports in India.
Important highlights of e-Tourist Visa during September, 2015:
– During the month of September, 2015 a total of 31,729 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,170 during the month of September, 2014 registering a growth of 1362.2 per cent.
– During January- September, 2015 a total of 2,01,705 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 19,290 during January- September, 2014 registering a growth of 945.6 per cent.
– This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 113 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 September, 2015 were as follows: USA (18.71 per cent), UK (9.24 per cent ), Australia (8.50 per cent), Germany (7.22 per cent), China (6.36 per cent), France (5.22 per cent), Canada (4.54 per cent), Israel (3.61 per cent), Japan (2.83 per cent), and Mexico (2.66 per cent).
– The percentage shares of different ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during September, 2015 were as follows: New Delhi Airport (50.69 per cent), Mumbai Airport (20.70 per cent), Bengaluru Airport (7.44 per cent), Chennai Airport (7.18 per cent), Kochi Airport (3.53 per cent), Kolkata Airport (2.93 per cent), Hyderabad Airport (2.74 per cent), Goa Airport (1.71 per cent), Trivandrum Airport (1.30 per cent), Ahmedabad Airport (0.72 per cent), Amritsar Airport (0.43 per cent), Tiruchinapalli Airport (0.33 per cent), Jaipur Airport (0.27 per cent), Varanasi Airport (0.01 per cent) and Gaya Airport ( 0.01 per cent).