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Offering visa-on-arrivals is one of the simplest steps a country can take to increase tourism, a fact that India has already seen first hand.
The Tourism Ministry is in talks with the Ministries of Home Affairs and External Affairs to extend the visa-on-arrival facility at more airports like Bangalore and Hyderabad to visitors from about 15 countries.
Currently, the visa-on-arrival scheme is available at four international airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. It covers citizens of over 11 countries including Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar.
The visa-on-arrival scheme has been a huge success and contributed to increase in the number of tourists from these countries, Gupta said.
According to a FICCI Knowledge Paper on Inbound tourism, the number of travel visa on arrival tourists registered a growth of 54.6 per cent as compared to the same period in 2012.
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Photo credit: The "Incredible India" campaign is India's pre-eminent national campaign to woo tourists. Seen here on the side of a tour bus. McKay Savage / Flickr