Last year, over 4.45 lakh tourists arrived in India through the online e-visa scheme, recording a growth in issuances of these visas at 1040.4%. Out of these 4.45 lakh tourists, the maximum tourists came from the UK, followed by the United States and Russia.
Even though the growth figures look promising, this is still a small number as compared to the total number of foreign tourists coming to India, which means that only a fraction of foreign tourists make use of these online facilities. For example, in 2015 alone, India attracted about 70 lakh tourists in 2015, which was at a growth of 4.5%, out of which only 4.45 lakh came through online visas.
This facility was started by tourism ministry in November 2014. This, however, has helped India in climbing up the ladder of the Tourism and Travel Competitive Index as per the World Economic Forum report. From 65th rank, we have now moved to the 52nd rank.
The facility for e-visas, which was started with 40 countries, has now been extended to 113 countries, and the next step on the radar is tourism ministry’s plan to extend it for medical visas.
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