There seem to be more Indians travelling overseas going by the data collected by VFS Global. In 2018, VFS Global processed 5.28 million applications in India. This represents an increase of 13 per cent since 2017 and 22 per cent higher than that in 2016.

The countries for which the highest number of visa applications were processed include the US, the UK, Canada, Malaysia, China, Thailand, and the Schengen group of countries (in no particular order).

Emerging destination countries which showed a significant increase in visa applications in 2018 over the previous year include Japan, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and Estonia, among others (in no particular order).

VFS Global serves 48 client governments through Visa Application Centres in 17 cities in India. Tier-II Indian cities have contributed significantly to the growth in outbound travel from India. Visa application counts in the major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru have grown consistently.

Significant growth in visa application counts were witnessed in some other metros such as Ahmedabad (32 per cent growth in 2018) and Pune (20 per cent growth in 2018).

A steep year-on-year growth in count was recorded in Tier II cities such as Jalandhar (66 per cent), Chandigarh (54 per cent), Pondicherry (43 per cent), and Goa (45 per cent).

Vinay Malhotra, Regional Group Chief Operating Officer – Middle East, South Asia, and China, VFS Global, said:

“With the year-on-year increase in visa applications from India, it is evident that foreign travel is no longer the domain of a privileged few. A large part of this growth comes from the smaller cities, more Indians from these cities are travelling abroad than ever before, and are keen to explore even off-beat destinations.

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