Tourism ministry pushing ahead with visa-on-arrival plan

despite september 11, anti-osama, anti-taliban war and december 13 terrorist attack on parliament house, the tourism ministry is pushing ahead with its plans to launch visa-on-arrival for tourists from specified countries. the tourism ministry's view is that the current security concerns will subside in the long-term and launching the liberalised visa regime in a limited way would not lead to security glitches. interestingly, none of the neighbouring countries, nor the us and the uk, figure in the list of 14 countries which would be brought into the 'on-the-spot' visa regime in the initial phase. countries from europe, south america and the asia-pacific region are the preferred ones figuring on the first list. brazil, mexico, chile and argentina have been selected from south america. the maximum number of countries selected for the preferential visa are from europe — france, spain, belgium, the netherlands, luxembourg, norway, finland and germany. the others figuring on the initial list are japan, australia and new zealand. while pakistan was ruled out right from the beginning, the government has taken care to exclude other neighbouring countries like china, bangladesh, burma and sri lanka due to various reasons. the tourism department is now working with the home ministry to work out the modalities for implementing the scheme in a phased manner. the countries selected for this purpose are those which are not known in connection with those linked with terrorist or criminal activities in india. the other aspect that has been taken into account is checking of illegal immigration of indians which has been a problem with certain countries. initially, the visa-on-spot scheme would be available only to those travelling by air and special counters for this purpose would be set up at key airports. sources said the modalities for the scheme are being reworked to address new security concerns arising out of recent incidents. opening of the window might be delayed but not scrapped after september 11 or december 13, they added. in a way, the tourism ministry feels that it has become necessary to liberalise the visa regime to boost flow of international tourists as this will help the tourism industry which has been struggling under the impact of september 11 attacks. the tourism department has already provided relief to the tourism industry through a partial exemption from service tax till march 31, 2002. besides, plans are on the cards to step up annual spending on international marketing to rs.51 crore — more than double the current allocation of rs 25 crore. state government are also taking similar steps to support the industry and also improve tourism infrastructure. with leisure tourists staying away due to security concerns and the fear of flying, the tourism ministry also plans to woo pilgrim-tourists to buddhist centres like rajgir, bodhgaya, nalanda and ajanta-ellora.

Tourism ministry pushing ahead with visa-on-arrival plan

DESPITE September 11, anti-Osama, anti-Taliban war and December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament House, the tourism ministry is pushing ahead with its plans to launch visa-on-arrival for tourists from specified countries.

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