‘Visa on Arrival’ to be extended to tourists from 150 countries

Vanita Peter D’souza| The Dollar Business In what could be a game changer for Indian tourism, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has extended the ‘visa on arrival’ facility to citizens of 150 countries. “After the success of VISAs on arrival issued to travelers of 43 countries, I propose to increase the countries covered to 150, in stages,” Jaitley said while presenting the first full budget of Modi Sarkar on Saturday. According to data released by Ministry of Tourism, those availing Tourist Visa on Arriva (TVoA) saw a stupendous jump of 1,214.9% (YoY) in January 2015, as 25,023 foreign tourists made use of this convenience. Reacting to this budget announcement, a delighted Dr. Mahesh Sharma, MoS for Tourism, said, “It’s a big boost to the tourism industry. I’m sure the impact of this will be rewarding and the revenue of the tourism ministry will see multifold increase. Faith of international tourists will also increase. In between, we will try to improve the infrastructure, we will try to clean the monuments and tourist places, increase safety and also work hard on women’s safety.” In an exclusive interview to The Dollar Business Sharma said, “In the first phase, Ministry of Tourism has requested the government to include China, Spain, Italy and the UK. If these countries are included, their share in foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India will increase to 62% from 42%.” When asked what the larger impact of the budget would be, Sharma said, “This budget is not an immediate treatment. It is for the long term cure of the problems and the long term settlement of issues related to the economic situation of the country. I think measures have been taken to change the economy of the country in a big way. If you talk of our problems such as corruption and black money, then the issues have been addressed. If the black money stays (in India) and corruption is out, then I think 90% of our problems are solved.”  

This article was published on February 28, 2015.