India’s free tourist visas scheme affected by Covid

International travel to India has not yet started in full force and the government has issued only 56,392 regular tourist Visas and 111,141 e- visas from October 6, 2021 to January 21, 2022

PRAVASISAMWAD.COM

Last year, the government had offered 5 lakh free tourist visas till March 31, 2022. But there have been few takers. International travel to India has not yet started in full force and the government has issued only 56,392 regular tourist Visas and 111,141 e- visas from October 6, 2021 to January 21 , 2022.

E-visa for India is available for citizens of 156 countries that include China, Canada and Hong Kong. In 2019 over 10.9 million foreign tourists visited India and contributed to over $30 billion in foreign exchange earnings. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in June 2021 once visa issuance started the first 500,000 tourist visas would be issued free of charge. The scheme would be applicable till March 31, 2022 and would see a reduction in government income by around INR 100 crore. This would incentivise short-term tourists visiting India, she had said.

 The Government is hopeful that once the pandemic risk is reduced and the situation comes back to normalcy, inbound tourism will restart

The free tourist visa scheme notwithstanding, not many foreign tourists have visited India due to the soaring Covidpositive cases during the third wave. “Citing the Covid -19 situation across the globe and for revival of tourist in India, the Government allowed foreign nationals to enter into India for tourism purpose on e- Tourist Visa/ Tourist Visa through Chartered flight (for Group Tourism only) from October 15,2021 and for Individual foreign nationals from November 15, 2021,” said Minister of Tourism G Kishan Reddy in a written response to Parliament. Presently, Goa is receiving charters from Russia and Kazakhastan.

The normal flights which were to be operational from December 15, 2021 have been discontinued in view of the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron. Currently, foreign tourists have been coming to India on flights operational under the air bubble arrangement with the countries. The main tourism source markets for India tourism are struggling with Covid variants and have restricted their travelling. The Government is hopeful that once the pandemic risk is reduced and the situation comes back to normalcy, inbound tourism will restart.

************************************************************************

Readers

These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.

Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world.  We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.

Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.

In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.

For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com