The Government of India, has now extended its e-visa facility for citizens of 165 countries at the 25 international airports and 5 seaports. The e-visa scheme boosts tourism, business travel and health tourism in the country and its widespread reach opens the world for visitors.
The e-visa scheme is a popular tourism initiative. Providing easy and hassle-free visa process, the scheme was launched in 2014 for 44 countries, and now the number has grown to 165 countries. The number of e-visas issued have increased from 5,17,417 in 2015 to 19,01,309 in 2017 and so far, this year 2018 till July 5, 11,16,985 e-visas have been issued.
The Ministry of Home Affairs’ Bureau of Immigration (BoI) have also made predictions seeing the growing numbers of e-visas, that the within a few years the number of e-visas issued by would be more than the number of regular visas issued by all the Indian missions all over the world.
In a recent event the Tourism Minister K J Alphons also said that the government has launched the ‘Incredible India 2.0’ campaign. The new campaign marks a shift from general promotions to market-specific promotional plans, new measures to boost tourism and rely on digital modes. The efforts also include a 24X7 toll free multi-lingual tourist helpline.
Also, to promote tourism in India, there have been events such as ‘Paryatan Parv’ (tourism festival), International Buddhist Conclave and International Tourism Mart.
The State Governments takes up the responsibility of development and promotion of tourism is backed by the Union Tourism Ministry. The central government will provide central financial assistance to states and UTs which will be utilized to organise fairs, festivals and tourism-related events for the promotion of tourism in India.
Debashree Chakraborty
A travel writer by profession and self-professed addict to literature and travelling. Go through her penned down travel experiences on indianholiday.com
Great Post! This e-visa facility will be really helpful for all. As you said this will definitely boost tourism, business travel and health tourism in the country. Thank you for sharing this news with us!