Over 5,000 tourists from five countries avail visa on arrival

NEW DELHI - As many as 5,016 visitors from Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore availed of visa on arrival in India between January-October this year, officials said Thursday.

As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists, a scheme of ‘Visa on Arrival’ (VoA) was launched this January for citizens of five countries visiting India for tourism.

The largest number of VoAs were issued to tourists from Singapore with 1,501 visas followed by New Zealand - 1,328, Japan - 1,110, Finland - 1,033 and Luxembourg with 44 visas, said an official of the tourism ministry.

During the ten-month period, the maximum number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport - 2,695, followed by Mumbai with 1,093, Chennai - 975 and only 253 visas were issued at Kolkata airport.