253% growth in eTVs in Jan ’16 over Jan ’15

A total of 88,162 foreign tourists arrived in the country on e-Tourist Visa (eTV) in January 2016 as compared to 25,023 during the same month in 2015 registering a growth of 252.3 per cent. According to the Ministry of Tourism, this high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 113 countries as against the earlier coverage of 43 countries. United Kingdom occupied the top slot in the top 10 countries availing the facility with 25.37 per cent. The share of the other top countries availing eTV facility were USA (15.17%); Russian Fed. (9.58%); France (6.00%); Australia (5.25%); Germany (4.23%); Canada (4.10%); China (3.96%); Republic of Korea (3.72%) and Ukraine (2.86%). The New Delhi airport received the highest percentage of foreign tourists with 33.18 per cent. The other top ports in foreign tourist arrivals on eTV during January 2016 were Mumbai Airport (20.81%); Goa Airport (19.10%); Chennai Airport (6.95%); Bengaluru Airport (5.35%); Kochi Airport (4.17%); Kolkata Airport (2.99%); Trivandrum Airport (2.29%); Hyderabad Airport (2.13%) and Ahmedabad Airport (1.75%).