Inbound takes centre stage
In a significant step to boost the arrival of tourists in India, the government here has decided to increase the validity of the e-visa from 60 days to one year whilst allowing multiple entries to the country.
Liberalising the e-visa regime to make India more tourist-friendly, Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of has said that the ministry has been working closely with that of Home Affairs to ease e-visa norms for tourists coming into the country. “The government has now increased the duration of stay for foreign tourists holding e-tourist and e-business visas to up to one year with multiple entry, subject to stay stipulations. We are trying to remove several bottlenecks to make it easier for them to travel to India. E-visa has actually been a revolutionary change in the Indian tourism scenario,” he said at the Knowledge Conclave on Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality organised by - He further informed that since November 2014, India has opened its e-visa service, which is simple and easy to access, to 166 countries. Billa also spoke about the call centre for inbound tourists, which is
More than 10 million foreign tourists travelled to India last year; if we add the people of Indian origin to the tally according to the global standard, the number jumps to 14.5 million