15.1.16

E-visas are a hit

Over 4.45 lakh tourists arrived in India last year through the online visa scheme registering a growth of 1040.4%. The highest number of tourists came from the UK followed by the US and Russia.
Though the growth figures are high, tourists using online facilities are still a small fraction of the total foreign tourist arrivals. India attracted about 70 lakh tourists in 2015 at a growth of 4.5%. During December 2015, a total of 1,03,617 tourists arrived on e-tourist visa as compared to 14,083 during December, 2014, registering a growth of 635.8%.
Between January-December, 2015 a total of 4,45,300 tourist arrived as compared to 39,046 during January-December, 2014 registering a growth of 1040.4%, according to tourism ministry data. The facility of applying for visas online was started in November 2014. “This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-tourist visa for 113 countries...'' the ministry said.
One of the immediate impact of the decision has been that India has moved 13 positions ahead -from 65th to 52nd rank -in the Tourism and Travel Competitive Index as per the World Economic Forum report.
According to ministry data 23.81% of tourists came from the UK, 19.59% from the US, followed by Russia (9.33%), Australia (5.44%) and Germany (4.86%).Other countries include France (4.44%), Canada (4.40%), China (3.10%), Republic of Korea (1.83%) and Ukraine (1.67%).
The maximum number of arrivals were predictably at New Delhi airport (36.23%), followed by Mumbai airport (21.90%) and Goa airport (16.54%).

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