Highest number of tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa from USA during Jan-Aug 2015

Government of India launched Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), presently known as e-Tourist Visa scheme on 27th November 2014. At present e-Tourist Visa facility is available for citizens of 113 countries (including 36 countries for which the facility was extended on 15th August, 2015) arriving at 16 Airports in India (includes 7 airports added from 15th August, 2015). 

The following are the important highlights of e-Tourist Visa during August, 2015: 

(i) During the month of August, 2015 a total of 22,286 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,705 during the month of August, 2014 registering a growth of 723.9%. 

(ii) During January- August, 2015 a total of 1,69,976 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 17,120 during January-August, 2014 registering a growth of 892.9% . 

(iii) This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 113 countries as against coverage of earlier TVoA scheme for 12 countries. 

(iv) The percentage shares of top 10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facility during August 2015 were as follows: 

USA (25.93%), Germany (10.00%), UAE (8.92%), France (8.76%), Australia (7.20%), Canada (6.39%), Republic of Korea (4.23%), Japan (3.41%), Russian Federation (2.37%) and Singapore (2.22%).

(v) The percentage shares of different ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during August 2015 were as follows: 

New Delhi (42.67%), Mumbai (23.40%), Bengaluru (10.37%), Chennai (9.07%), Kochi (5.44%), Hyderabad (4.21%), Kolkata (2.38%), Trivandrum (1.87%) and Goa (0.58%).