A total of 83,501 foreign tourists arrived in the country on e-tourist visa in November this year as compared to 2,968 during the month of October 2014, registering a growth of 2713.4%.
TVoA (tourist visa on arrival), enabled by Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), popularly known as e-tourist visa scheme was launched on November 27, 2014.
The UK continued to occupy top spot, followed by the US, France and Germany amongst the countries availing e-tourist visa facility, Tourism Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Ministry, during January-November of this year, a total of 3,41,683 tourists arrived on e-tourist visa as compared to 24,963 during the corresponding period of previous year, registering a growth of 1268.8 percent.
“This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-tourist visa for 113 countries as against coverage of earlier TVoA (tourist visa on arrival) scheme for 12 countries,” the Ministry said in a release.
The UK accounted for 23.93% share of availing e-tourist visa facilities during November 2015, followed by the USA (16.33%), Russian Federation (8.17%), France (7.64%), Germany (5.60%), and Australia (4.82%), it added.
Canada had a share of 4.71%, while that of China stood at 3.26%, Ukraine 2.03% and Netherlands 1.75%.
At present, e-tourist visa facility is available for citizens of 113 countries arriving at 16 airports in India.