Visa on arrival facility for tourists will now be available at five more international airports across the country, besides the four existing metro cities.
It was decided at the third Inter-ministerial Coordination Committee meeting to extend the facility of tourist visa on arrival (VoA) at Goa, Trivandrum, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi airports, said a senior tourism ministry official.
Currently the VoA facility is operational at four international airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
The Inter-ministerial Coordination Committee on tourism has been constituted at the initiative of Prime Minister’s Office to sort out tourism related issue on priority basis.
The tourism ministry was pushing for a more liberal visa regime to encourage tourism.
The government has permitted VoA facility for citizens of 11 countries — Japan, Singapore, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia.
As many as 2,107 VoAs were issued in March as compared to 1,287 VoAs issued in the same month last year, registering a growth of 63.7 per cent.
From January to March 2013, a total of 5,744 VoAs were issued as compared to 3,905 during the corresponding period in 2012, registering a growth of 47.1 per cent.