A total of 83,501 foreign tourists arrived in the country on e-tourist visa in November 2015 as compared to 2,968 during the period last year, registering a growth of 2713.4 per cent. The UK continued to occupy the top spot followed by the USA, France and Germany among the countries whose nationals availed the e-tourist visa facility.
During January-November, 2015 a total of 3,41,683 tourists arrived on e-tourist visa as compared to 24,963 during January-November last year, registering a
growth of 1268.8 per cent. This high growth has come around due to the extension of e-tourist visa to 113 countries as against the coverage of the earlier TVoA
scheme for 12 countries.
According to a Government statement, the percentage shares of top 10 source countries availing e-tourist visa facilities during November, 2015 were: UK
(23.93%), USA (16.33%), Russia (8.17%), France (7.64%), Germany (5.60%), Australia (4.82%), Canada (4.71%), China (3.26%), Ukraine (2.03%) and the Netherlands (1.75%).
The percentage shares of top 10 ports in tourist arrivals on e-tourist visa during November, 2015 were: New Delhi Airport (45.04%), Mumbai Airport (17.72%), Goa
Airport (14.62%), Bengaluru Airport (5.57%), Chennai Airport (5.16%), Kochi Airport (3.56%), Kolkata Airport (2.27%), Hyderabad Airport (2.19%), Trivandrum
Airport (1.44%) and Ahmedabad Airport (0.93%).
The Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), presently known as E-Tourist Visa scheme was launched on November 27,
2014. At present e-tourist visa facility is available for citizens of 113 countries arriving at 16 airports in India. E-tourist visa fee structure has been revised w.e.f November 3, 2015 by clubbing the 113 countries into four groups for charging differential rates. Bank charges have also been reduced.
