Tuesday, September 25, 2012

More Foreign Tourists Opting for India’s Visa on Arrival

A good number of foreign travellers taking flights to India are now opting for the Visa on Arrival (VoA) scheme for tourism purposes. The country reported an impressive growth of 90.2 percent in the count of global vacationers availing the facility in August 2012.

In August 2012, a total number of 1750 tourists took advantage of VoAs as compared to 920 VoAs during the month in 2011.

The period of January-August 2012 also saw a rise of 25.3 percent as compared to the same period in 2011. 7,514 VoA were issued to foreign tourists travelling on flights to various destinations in India in 2011, whereas the figure rose to 9412 in 2012. 

India airports ranking for the numbers of Visa on Arrival issued include Delhi on top with 5489, followed by Mumbai with 1981 while 1365 foreign holidaymakers booked flights to Chennai.

Japanese citizens who took flights to the different cities of the country were issued the maximum number of VoAs in the month of August, followed by Philippines and Indonesia.

In a bid to lure more global vacationers to take flights, the Government of India introduced the Visa on Arrival scheme in January 2010. Initially it was offered to nationals of 5 countries - Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting for tourism purposes. In January 2011, it was extended to tourists from Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar.

News Reference

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