New Delhi: Identifying tourism as one of the important sectors of the economy and a potential job creator, the BJP-led government has proposed to facilitate visa-on-arrival to tourists coming into India.
Presenting the Budget 2014, finance minister Arun Jaitley said electronic visa facility will be set up at nine airports across India. Adding that, tourism helped in job creation and e-visas would encourage more tourists to visit India.
During the past year, India has relaxed its visa regime and expanded the visa-on-arrival scheme to include more countries.
“Tourism is one of the largest job creators which is why we want to introduce and expand the facility of electronic visas,” Mr Jaitley said. Countries to which e-visa facility will be extended will be identified soon, he added.
The tourism industry stakeholders hails the proposal and said that it was a long standing demand and will provide long term fillip to the sector. The move, according to the stakeholders is expected to inject an additional 10 per cent international tourists within one year.
