India eyeing easy visas

NEW DELHI, India – An average 7% growth in foreign tourist arrivals — nearly double the average 3.9% growth of foreign tourists worldwide — should have had the government cheering.

NEW DELHI, India – An average 7% growth in foreign tourist arrivals — nearly double the average 3.9% growth of foreign tourists worldwide — should have had the government cheering. Instead, the low rupee-dollar exchange rate has resulted in “dollarless growth” with foreign exchange earnings dipping to negative in the last two months.

A worried tourism ministry is now pitching for easing of visa norms to spur tourist arrivals. Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and tourism minister K Chiranjeevi met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi recently on the issue following which several initiatives are likely to take place.

The Planning Commission has called a joint meeting of ministries of home affairs, external affairs, tourism and the national security advisor in the first week of October to improve access for foreign tourists and cut down bureaucracy.

The current account deficit is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange. During 2012-13, the CAD was at an all-time high of 4.8% of GDP or $88.2 billion. The government proposes to bring it down to $70 billion or 3.8% of the GDP. “We are preparing for international tourism to bridge this forex crisis,” a senior tourism ministry official said.

The ministry has already looked into the economic implications of a more liberalized visa regime. According to a study by the Federation of Associations for Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) 2013, 30 visas can support the creation of one job in India. The short term implication with visa liberalization and no additional investments is a 25% increase in foreign tourist arrivals to an additional 1.5 million translating to an additional foreign exchange earning of $4.2 billion during the first year. The medium term scenario that has been estimated is that by 2020, Indian could receive 20 million international tourists earning forex of $36 billion.

The ministry is also looking at an online system of accepting of visas similar to what is being implemented in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka offers electronic visa on arrival to all nationalities except those of Maldives and Singapore who are exempt from requirement of a visa. The ministry is also likely to propose extending the VoA facility to nationals above the age of 60 years.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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