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Indian Visa on Arrival scheme has become increasingly popular among travellers taking flights to the country which registered a jump of nearly 15 percent in July 2012. Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai accounted for maximum VoAs issued until July this year.
India has been luring an increasing number of foreign holidaymakers taking flights to the country to opt for visa on arrival.
As per a recent disclosure by the Indian tourism authority, the Visa on Arrival (VoA) scheme has brought in impressive results with a growth of 14.8 per cent in the number of foreign tourists availing the facility in July 2012 as compared to the same period in last year.
A total of 941 travellers taking flights to India in July made use of the service. The 2011 data for the same period revealed that 820 foreign tourists taking flights to India were issued visa on arrival.
A statement from the tourism ministry of India revealed that “During January-July 2012, a total of 7,662 VoAs were issued as against 6,594 during the corresponding period in 2011, a growth of 16.2 percent”.
Japanese citizens who took flights to India were issued the maximum number of VoAs in the months of January to July. Japanese were issued 1,872 visas, followed by travellers from New Zealand (1,588) and Indonesia (1,259).
Indian airports ranking high for the number of VoAs issued include Delhi on top with 4,430, followed by Mumbai with 1,689; while 1,091 tourists who booked flights to Chennai were issued VoAs.
The Government of India launched the VoA scheme in January 2010 in an attempt to attract higher number of global tourists to book flights to India. The scheme was initially offered to nationals of five countries – Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore. However, the scheme was extended in January 2011 to cover nationals of Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar taking flights to India.