Progress of Tourist Visa on arrival scheme in October 2011

During the month of October 2011, a total of 1234 Visa on Arrival (VoAs) were issued to foreign tourists . The number of VoAs issued during the month of September 2011 were 991. During the period January-October 2011, a total number of 9739 VoAs were issued. The number of VoAs issued under this scheme, during October, 2011 were New Zealand (274), Japan (224), Indonesia (205), Phillippines (186), Singapore (140), Finland (134), Cambodia (27), Vietnam (15), Luxemburg (14) Laos (10) and Myanmar (5). The number of VoAs issued under this scheme during January-October 2011 were New Zealand (1950), Japan (1899), Indonesia (1652), Phillipines (1576), Singapore (1448), Finland (886), Cambodia (123), Vietnam (100), Myanmar (56), Luxemburg (63) and Laos (13). During the period January-October 2011, the maximum number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport ( 5622), followed by Mumbai (2062), Chennai (1561) and Kolkata (494).

As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, The Government launched a Scheme of “Visa on Arrival” (VoA) in January,2010 for citizens of five countries, viz Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes. This scheme was further extended for the citizens of six more countries, namely, Combodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar from January, 2011.

samir/kd