Government plans to extend e-visa facility in more countries

NEW DELHI: More than 14,000 tourists flew into India in December using the e-visa, or electronic tourist authorisation, facility that was rolled out on November 27. The number may increase significantly as the country plans to extend the facility to tourists from the UK, France, China, Spain and Italy, which together make up 63% of India's in-bound tourism source markets.

Under the e-visa facility, people from 43 countries can apply for a visa to enter the country online. Once cleared after a background check, the tourist can fly in to any of nine select international airports in the country and pay the visa fee there.

Tourists from the US accounted for nearly one-fourth of the electronic visas issued last month and a majority 35% of the arrivals happened in Delhi. In the past, industry experts have said that e-visa facility could double annual tourist arrivals to over 12 million in five years.

The country is also planning to come up with a new tourism policy within six months to boost the industry. “The last policy was made in 2002 and it's time we revise it with suggestions from the industry,” said tourism secretary Lalit K Panwar.

India levies a fee of over Rs 3,600 ($60) per passenger (excluding interchange charge for credit/debit cards) for e-visa. In 2013, India recorded about 6.97 million tourist arrivals, a 5% increase over 2012.