The Government will roll out e-Tourist visa (e-TV) facility to Chinese nationals as well as those from Hong Kong and Macau from, which would take the total number of countries availing this facility to 77.
The Government had launched e-TV facility last November. It is expected that extending this facility to Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau nationals would boost the tourist arrival from these regions and strengthen bilateral ties among people of these territories, an official release said on Wednesday.
The scheme will be extended to more countries/territories in a phased manner, the release said, adding as many two lakh e-TVs have been issued to nationals of different countries since the launch. Of the the 74 countries whose nationals are currently availing the facility include Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE, Ukraine and the USA among other, release said.
Under this scheme, tourists with e-tourist visas can arrive at nine designated airports — Bengaluru, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata Mumbai and Trivandrum. According to release a total of 1,79,873 tourist visas have been issued to Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau nationals during the last three years.
It is expected that extending the e-Tourist Visa facility to the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR will boost the tourist arrival from these regions and strengthen bilateral ties among people of these territories.
Source : https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-tourist-e-visa-facility-for-chinese-hong-kong-macau-nationals-2109415
