The government issued 15,557 e-tourist visas in the month of June 2015 registering a growth of 636.6% compared to 2,112 visas it issued in June 2014. The government attributed the high growth in e-tourist visas to the extension of the facility to 76 countries as opposed to the earlier coverage of 12 countries. During January-June, 2015 a total of 1,26,214 tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 11,953 during January-June, 2014 registering a growth of 955.9%, the government said in a release. The top ten countries using the e-tourist visa facility in June 2015 were USA (41.71%), Australia (9.67%), Germany (7.21%), Canada (4.86%), Republic of Korea (4.29%), France (3.38%), Singapore (2.73%), UAE (2.70%), Russian Federation (2.53%) and Mexico (2.47%). The percentage shares of different ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during June 2015 were New Delhi (43.11%), Mumbai (22.27%), Bengaluru (11.70%), Chennai (9.83%), Hyderabad (4.85%), Kochi (3.83%), Kolkata (2.89%), Trivandrum (1.14%) and Goa (0.38%). In his budget speech, union finance minister Arun Jaitley had said the government would be extending the e-tourist visas to 150 countries in a bid to boost tourism in India. In June 2015, the government added 31 more countries which could get e-tourist visas and added 9 more airports (Jaipur, Amritsar, Gaya, Lucknow, Trichy, Varanasi and Ahmedabad) to issue the facility. The airports have been chosen due to the large number of foreign tourists they receive on account of their proximity to major tourist spots. Passport services - Earlier this week, the home ministry said that police verification for the…
