Significant Rise in Indian Visa on Arrival in June 2012

The number of Visa on Arrivals (VoAs) witnessed a significant jump of over 12 percent in June 2012 as compared to the same period last year. 864 foreign tourists who took flights to India in June this year made use of the facility.

India’s scheme to launch Visa on Arrival (VoA) has yielded positive response for the country’s tourism. The scheme has been successful in attracting more foreign tourists to grab flights to India.

VoA scheme has recorded an increase of over 12 per cent with a total of 864 foreign tourists making use of the facility in June as compared to 770 during the same period in 2011, revealed a tourism ministry official. On the whole, in June 2012, 4.32 lakh foreign tourists took travel to India as against 4.12 lakh during the same period last year.

In the January-June 2012, 6721 VoAs were issued as compared to 5774 VoAs during corresponding period of 2011. It is an increase of 16.4 per cent, elucidated the ministry data.

India remains a much sought after holiday destination all over the world and the demand for airlines that dole out cheap flights to India is an indication enough.

Maximum number of tourists who made use of the Visa on Arrival facility were from Japan (233). Myanmar and Cambodia had the minimum number of tourists at five each.

Figures also revealed that during the period January-June 2012, the maximum number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport (3888), followed by Mumbai (1473), Chennai (954) and Kolkata (406).

Government of India launched the VoA scheme in January 2010 in a bid to attract more foreign tourists to the country. The facilitative measure was given to five countries – Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore for tourism purposes.

In January 2011, the scheme was further extended for the nationals of six more countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar.