India’s Visa on Arrival scheme has become highly popular among holidaymakers catching flights to the country. It registered an impressive rise of 25.3 percent during the January-August 2012 as compared to the same period last year.
India’s Visa on Arrival (VoA) service is gaining popularity among a number of foreign holidaymakers taking flights to the country.
As per a recent revelation by the Indian Tourism Authority, Visa on Arrival scheme has brought in notable results with a growth of 90.2 percent in the figures of foreign tourists availing the facility in August 2012 as compared to the same period last year.
During the period of January-August 2012, a total number of 9,412 travellers taking flights tickets to the ancient country of India made use of the service. The 2011 data for the same period revealed that 7,514 foreign tourists taking flights to various destinations India were issued visa on arrival. Registering a rise of 25.3 percent in the period, the scheme of VoA has earned great reputation among global holidaymakers travelling on India bound flights.
The maximum Visa on Arrival were issued at Delhi Airport with 5489 tourists who took advantage of the facility. In Mumbai, a total number of 1981 visas were issued at the time of arrival. On the other hand, 1365 foreign travellers who booked flights tickets to Chennai took VoAs.
Japanese took maximum number of VoAs in the month of August. They were issued 693 visas, followed by vacationers from Philippines (349) and Indonesia (255).
India authorities launched the VoA scheme in January 2010 in a bid to lure global tourists to book flights. Initially the facility was offered to nationals of five countries – Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore. Later on it was extended to tourists from Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar. The authorities are now contemplating to offer VoA to vacationers from more European countries.
