A total of 9,412 visas on arrival (VoAs) were issued till August compared to 7,514 during corresponding period of 2011, registering a growth of 25.3 percent, an official said Tuesday.
According to the tourism ministry, 1,750 VoAs were issued in August compared to 920 during August 2011, registering a growth of 90.2 percent.
As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, the union government launched the VoAs scheme in January 2010 for citizens of five countries – Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore – visiting India for tourism purposes.
This scheme was extended for the citizens of six more countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar – in January 2011.
IANS