Arrival on e-Tourist visas double in June 2016; sector achieves over 130% growth

Tourists’ arrivals on e-Tourist visas saw 137.7% growth in June 2016 as compared to the same period last year, Ministry of Tourism said on Tuesday.

“A total of 36,982 tourists arrived in June 2016 on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 15,557 last year,” it said in a statement.

These Visas are issued electronically and allows for visa on arrival issuance from 16 airports in India namely; Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru (Bangalore), Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Tiruchirapalli, Trivandrum & Varanasi.

The scheme had commenced on November 27, 2014 and was available until February 25 of this year for citizens of 113 countries arriving at the above mentioned 16 airports.

This was soon extended to include 150 countries.

Highest number of tourists availing the e-Tourist Visa facility during this period was USA which was followed by UK and China.

USA (23.22%), UK (14.16%), China (6.91%), Australia (5.59%), France (4.10%), Germany (4.03%), Canada (4.02%), Singapore (2.62%), Malaysia (2.53%) and Spain (2.40%).

The percentage shares of top 10 ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during June, 2016 were as follows:

New Delhi Airport (42.15%), Mumbai Airport (22.94%), Bengaluru Airport (9.95%), Chennai Airport (9.80%), Hyderabad Airport (3.76%), Kochi Airport (3.52%), Kolkata Airport (2.72%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.16%), Tiruchirapalli Airport (1.15%) and Trivandrum Airport (1.08%).