ALAPPUZHA: The tourist visa on arrival (T-VoA) facility introduced at the airports in the state is yet to catch up. Among the top ten airports in the country that have introduced the facility, Kochi remains at the sixth place and Thiruvananthpuram ninth in December 2016.
The facility was introduced at Thiruvananthapuram international airport in April 2013 and later at Kochi airport. The country witnessed 56.6 percent growth in foreign tourist arrivals on e-visa in December last year over the same period in 2015. T-VoA is available to the citizens of 161 countries at 16 international airports in India.
According to the data provided by the ministry of tourism, the tourists from the UK topped the list with 22.4 percent, followed by those of USA (16.4), Russia (7.7), China (5.3), Australia (4.6), France (4.1), Germany (4.0), South Africa (3.7), Canada (3.7) and Republic of Korea (2.0).
New Delhi airport received the most number of tourists with 36.6 percent, Mumbai (23.1), Dabolim, Goa, (13.6), Chennai (6.0), Bengaluru (5.1), Kochi (4.7), Kolkata (2.5), Hyderabad (2.4), Thiruvananthapuram (1.9) and Ahmedabad (1.7).
The number of visitors who came on e-tourist visas in 2016 was 10,79,696 compared to 4,45,300 in 2015 registering a growth of 142.5 percent.
Demonetisation does not appear to have affected the tourist flow contrary to earlier reports. Tourism officials defended the current depressed situation saying that most tourists come to Kerala as part of package tours. The officials hoped that the flow of tourists on T-VoA facility will increase in the coming years. Kerala tourism has been spending huge amounts of money to promote Kerala destinations abroad. This will be justified only if the state can attract many more tourists.
