Modi effect! More tourists visited India between May-Oct 2014, claims Govt

New Delhi, Dec 15: The number of foreign tourists visited India between May and October this year, a rise of 10 per cent as compared to the same period last year, the government on Monday said.

In a written response to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Tourism Mahesh Sharma said around 32.05 lakh foreign tourists visited India during May to October this year.

August saw an increase of foreign tourist visiting India, registering an increase of 16.9 per cent as compared to last year while May saw a marginal hike of 0.8 per cent as compared to the same month last year.

Sharma added that the Tourist Visa-on-Arrival (TVoA) enabled with the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme was launched on November 27 this year for nationals of 43 countries for a stay of 30 days.

Earlier, the TVoA facility was available for nationals of 12 countries.

"The restriction of two-month gap on re-entry of foreign nationals coming to India on tourist visa and TVoA has been lifted with effect from December 4, 2012.

PTI