Tourist arrivals on e-visa surges 180% in May

The tourists arrivals in May using e-tourist visa surged 179.9%. 43,833 tourists used the e-tourists visa route as compared to 15,659 during the month of May 2015, a Press Information Bureau release said.

E-tourist visas were made available to travellers to India, from November 27, 2014. As of February 25, 2016, the e-visa facility was available for citizens of 113 countries  said the PIB release. 

This year in February, the government of India extended the scheme for tourists of 37 more countries taking the tally to 150 countries.

The release pointed out three important highlights of e-Tourist Visa during May:

-- During January- May, 2016, a total of 4,34,927 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 1,10,657 last year during same period, registering growth of 293%. The growth was seen due to extension of scheme in 150 countries as against the earlier coverage of 43 countries. 

-- USA was the top source country availing e-Tourist Visa facilities with 18.52%, followed by UK (15.63%), China (8.17%), France (5.16%), Germany (4.91%), Australia (4.50%), Canada (4.49%), UAE (3.01%), Russian Fed. (2.79%) and Malaysia (2.12%). 

-- New Delhi airport was the top port in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa with 45.11%, followed by Mumbai Airport (22.50%), Bengaluru Airport (9.00%), Chennai Airport (6.63%), Kochi Airport (3.68%), Goa Airport (2.86%), Hyderabad Airport (2.75%) Kolkata Airport (2.63%), Trivandrum Airport (1.42%) and Ahmadabad Airport (1.26%).