Click it and Unblock the Notifications
New Delhi: In what can be hailed as great news for travellers to India and a step towards liberalization of the visa regime, the government on Wednesday cleared two initiatives: visa on arrival and electronic travel authorization(ETA) for 180 countries barring eight countries (Iran, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Iraq).
ETA will enable foreign travellers to apply for visa from home. They would need to apply on the designated website along with the required fees and they would receive an online confirmation within three working days. A separate website would be set up for this purpose.
The extension of visa-on-arrival and electronic travel authorization to citizens of 180 countries will be implemented initially at nine airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Goa and Trivandrum. Both facilities are likely to be implemented by the end of the year.
India currently offers visa-on-arrival to tourists from 11 countries.
A Planning Commission meeting that included representatives from the PMO, ministries of home affairs, external affairs and tourism took this decision.
The foreign exhange earnings of India from tourism are expected to reach $26 bn by 2015 according to an ASSOCHAM report. Here is a list of the top five countries which bring in maximum tourist footfall into India.
1. United States of America (USA) - 16 percent of the total number of tourists with over 10 lakh footfalls
2. United Kingdom (UK) - 11.9 per cent share and over 7 lakh tourists
3. Bangladesh - 7 per cent
4. Sri Lanka - 4.5 per cent
5. Canada - 3.8 per cent
