The tourism ministry has released the figures of tourist arrivals to India. Under the e-visa scheme tourist arrivals has registered a phenomenal increase in the period between January 2015 and June 2015 compared with same time period of the last year.
The total of arrivals during January 2015 to June 2015 registered 1, 26,214 which is more than tenfold increase compared to 11,953 arrivals of last year.
In the June 2015, a number of 15,557 tourists entered in the country availing e-visa facility rises from the number 2,112 of the same month last year.
Among the tourists from the top ten countries using e-visa facility, USA stood at top with 41.72 percent of tourists followed by Australia (9.67 percent), Germany (7.21 percent) in second and third position respectively. The other countries representing in top ten are Canada (4.86%), South Korea (4.29 %), France (3.38), Singapore (2.73%), UAE (2.70 %), Russia (2.53 %) and Mexico (2.47 %) according to ministry of tourism.
However, the higher growth is mainly attributed to introduction of e- tourist visa facility to additional 72 countries against the 12 countries in the last year.
India introduced electronic travel authorization facility on 27 November 2014, later its name changed as e-tourist visa (e TV) on this year 15th April 2015. The visa is given for 30 days from the date of tourist arrival to the country. Tourist visa can be given twice in a year to any citizen among 76 countries.
