Incredible India set to roll out VoA and E-Visa to 180 countries by Oct 2014

IATO estimates 25-50 percent incremental FTA’s, while it bats for relaxation of visa norms for Sri Lanka as well

Vivek Sethi | New Delhi

Our Incredible India has finally mustered adequate courage to put its best foot forward to make substantial inroads into the international tourists arrivals. As per the announcements made post a high level meeting held under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission on 5th February, 2014; India will offer Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVOA) and Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) facilities to all the countries barring only eight.

K.Chiranjeevi, Union Tourism Minister had welcomed the decision to relax the visa regime of India to promote tourism. In fact, he has categoirically thanked the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) had also reacted to the said developments with great optimism. Expressing his happiness, Subhash Goyal, President, IATO, said, “We express our happiness on behalf of the entire tourism industry. We are also thankful to  K. Chiranjeevi,  Honorable Union  Minister of Tourism and Parvez Dewan, Secretary Tourism, Govt. of India  and the entire team at DOT;  as without their help this historic achievement of Visa of Arrival to 180 countries would not have been possible for which we been requesting for last 15 years.”

“The sooner the Visa on Arrival along with E-Visas are implemented, better it will be for the country because once these are implemented, there will be increase in international tourist arrival between 25 -50 per cent”, he added. 

Going forward, IATO has urged the government to extend these benetits to Sri Lanka as well. As per the present developments, eight countries that had been excluded benefits under the new visa regime are Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

The Ministry of Home Affairs will now work out manpower, infrastructure and other requirements for expanding the TVOA and initiating the ETA facility. The new system of TVOA and ETA could be put into place by October, 2014.