OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 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 77 countries (including 3 countries for which the facility was extended on 31st July 2015) arriving at 9 Airports in India.

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

(i) During the month of July, 2015 a total of 21,476 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,462 during the month of July, 2014 registering a growth of 772.3%.

(ii) During January-July, 2015 a total of 1,47,690 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 14,415 during January-July, 2014 registering a growth of 924.6% .

(iii) This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 74 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 July 2015 were as follows:

USA (33.67%), Australia (7.74%), France (7.13%), Germany (6.80%), UAE (6.71%), Canada (6.30%), Republic of Korea (5.57%), Mexico (2.80%), Japan (2.38%) and Russian Federation (2.29%).

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

New Delhi (42.98%), Mumbai (20.72%), Bengaluru (10.36%), Chennai (10.32%), Hyderabad (5.30%), Kochi (5.15%), Kolkata (2.53%), Trivandrum (1.99%) and Goa (0.65%).