Indian e-visa programme gains popularity and growth

The number of applications in October 2016 rose with the continuous growth of India’s e-tourist visa programme which also gained popularity. According to the latest information from the Indian Ministry of Tourism, last month a huge number of 105,268 international tourists were issued e-visas with almost 86.4% rise in the percentage of applications issued, compared to 56,477 e-visas issued in October 2015 which reflect the growth of the scheme in the past year.

The top countries with the highest number of e-visas issued in October 2016 are, the UK, which occupies first place with 22.9% of total e-visas issued, the US stands second on the list with 12.1%, followed by France with 6.6%, China with 5.8% and Russia with 5.6% of total e-visas issued in October 2016. 

The total number of e-visas was majorly issued at three places; Delhi airport with 51.7%, which ranks first by issuing more than half of the total e-visas, Mumbai with 18.7% and Goa with 6.2% in second and third places. 

The e-tourist visa service is now available at 16 Indian airports to facilitate nationals of 150 nations. 

In 2016, totally 780,570 number of e-visas were issued by India in the first 10 months of the year which is up more than 200% year-on-year.