India issued a total of 445,300 e-tourist visas last year, as the scheme was expanded to 113 countries and territories and made available at 16 Indian airports.
According to the latest data from India’s Ministry of Tourism, the expansion of the e-visa programme led to a more-than-1,000% jump in the number of these tourist visas issued, compared to 2014. And December 2015 alone saw 103,617 e-visas issued, or 23% of the annual total.
The UK accounted for 23.8% of the issued visas last month, followed by the US (19.6%), Russia (9.3%), Australia (5.4%) and Germany (4.9%). And more than half (58.1%) of the e-visas were issued at Delhi and Mumbai airports.
In total, India welcomed 8.02 million international visitors last year, and the e-visa scheme accounted for 5.6% of these. But in December 2015, 11.3% of the country’s total arrivals entered on e-visas.
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