More than 200,000 overseas visitors have entered India using the newly-expanded e-tourist visa scheme so far this year, the country’s Ministry of Tourism has revealed.
For the January-September 2015 period, a total of 201,705 e-tourist visas were issued at Indian airports, marking a jump of 946% compared to the same period last year.
Comparisons are not especially meaningful however, as the scheme has been significantly expanded this year to cover visitors from 113 countries, compared to just 12 previously. One of these new markets, the US, accounted for the largest number of e-tourist visas issued in the first nine months of 2015.
In September 2015 alone, a total of 31,729 visitors entered India on e-tourist visas, with the US accounting for 18.7% of these, followed by the UK (9.2%), Australia (8.5%), Germany (7.2%) and China (6.4%).
More than half (50.7%) of September’s e-tourist visas were issued at Delhi Airport, ahead of Mumbai Airport (20.7%), Bengaluru Airport (7.4%), Chennai Airport (7.2%) and Kochi Airport (3.5%).
The proportion of international visitors using India’s e-tourist visa service remains small however; only 3.6% of 5.61 million arrivals in the first nine months of 2015 entered on e-tourist visas.
Comments are closed.