By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 07, 2015: THE Government of India launched Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), presently known as e-Tourist Visa scheme, on 27th November 2014 for 43 countries. The Government extended this Scheme to the citizens of Guyana and Sri Lanka in January, 2015 and April, 2015, respectively. The e-Tourist Visa facility is extended to the nationals of 31 countries in May, 2015.

The following are the important highlights of e-Tourist Visa during May, 2015:

(i) During the month of May 2015, a total of 15,659 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 1,833 during the month of May 2014, registering a growth of 754.3%.

(ii) During January- May 2015, a total of 1,10,657 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 9,841 during January- May 2014, registering a growth of 1024.4% .

(iii) This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 76 countries as against coverage of earlier TVoA scheme for 12 countries.

(iv) The percentage shares of top 10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facility during May 2015 were as follows:

USA (37.82%), Germany (9.35%), Australia (8.95%), Russian Federation (5.85%), Republic of Korea (4.30%), UAE (3.53%), Mexico (3.16%), Ukraine (3.01%), Japan (2.89%) and Singapore (2.43%).

(v) The percentage shares of different ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during May 2015 were as follows:

New Delhi (43.65%), Mumbai (22.14%), Bengaluru (9.66%), Chennai (7.25%), Hyderabad (4.55%), Kochi (3.97%) , Goa (3.81%), Kolkata (3.24%) and Trivandrum (1.73%).