Visa on Arrival scheme continues to be popular with foreign tourists with as many as 1,114 foreigners availing it in May this year as compared to 812 in the corresponding period last year, registering a growth of 37.2 per cent.
While maximum tourists availing Visa on Arrival facility were from Japan (372) followed by New Zealand (195) and the Philippines (181) availed the facility, only one tourist from laos availed the scheme.
The Government had launched the Visa on Arrival (VOA) scheme in January 2010 for citizens of 11 countries including Finland, Japan, luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, laos and Myanmar.
Currently, four international airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai are equipped with the VoA facility. During the period January to May 2013, the highest number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport (4,808), followed by Mumbai (1,743), Chennai (1,157) and Kolkata (558). VoA facility will be extended to five more airports at Goa, Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi soon. Home Ministry order dated April 1, 2013 also gave a go-ahead to collective landing permits to foreign travellers visiting India in groups of four or more.