The spate of measures including extending the visa on arrival facility to travellers, foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) has resulted in a steady growth in the beginning of the year, as compared to the previous two years.
“FTAs during the period January-February 2014 were 14.58 lakh with a growth of 5.1 per cent, as compared to the FTAs of 13.87 lakh with a growth of 1.8 per cent during January-February 2013 over the corresponding period of 2012,” said an official from the Tourism Ministry.
“There has been a growth of 7.2 per cent in February 2014 alone over February 2013 as compared to a growth of 1.0 per cent registered in February 2013 over February 2012, which is very promising,” said an official from the Ministry.
Statistics with the Ministry show that FTAs during February 2014 was 7.38 lakh as compared to FTAs of 6.88 lakh during the month of February 2013 and 6.81 lakh in February 2012.
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism alone has also seen a jump from Rs10,252 crore to Rs11,355 crore this February. FEE was Rs8,502 crore in February 2012.
last year, the ministry had extended the Visa-on Arrival facility from four to nine airports, which included Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Trivandrum and Goa along side the four metropolitan cities. This year, the ministry has floated a proposal to extend it to 180 countries.
To boost tourism, the Ministry had last year also given a go-ahead to collective landing permits to foreign travellers visiting India in groups of four or more. Earlier, the Ministry had extended the VOA
facility to all countries excluding Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Pakistan and foreigners of Pakistani origin.