Currently, 7.1% of the total traffic is inbound tourism . The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), representing tourism, travel, and hospitality industry bodies, said it hopes this would increase to 15.9% by 2035.
India has a wealth of tourism attractions, destinations and niche markets. The country heavily promotes at international events and trade shows and has a good base of SMEs and some major tour operators providing inbound travel services to this billion+ people nation.
An Indian e-Visa can be granted to passport-holders in 163 nations whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, attending a short term yoga program, medical treatment including treatment under Indian systems of medicine and business purpose.
It sounds easy enough to apply for a visa online. The cost for a 30 day visa is between $10- $25, one year $40.00 and five years $80.00
This fee can be paid by credit card during this online process.
Sounds easy, but it is confusing and bureaucratic for many, specially in western country where citizens are used to travel and have easy access.
An U.S. travel professional just applied for a 5 year visa and was turned down the first time having to submit the application a second time and a visa was issued.
There was no refund of the $80.00 paid, so the price on the visa doubled to $160.00.
India is learning from other countries, such as the United States or the UK where applicants get frequently rejected at will, and don’t get their money back.
The Indian form however is confusing to say the least.
Why are visitors expected to know a person in India when touring the country. One of the requirement is to name a person in India as a reference.
It appears hotel managers often are willing to take this task and vouch for guests he or she never saw before. It really cannot be an issue out security precaution.
One of the questions are to list the countries one had traveled in the last 10 years.
In the case of the US travel professional, he traveled to more than 70 countries in the last 10 years.
You can put a gun on my chest and I would not be able to list all the countries I traveled to.
US traveler applying for an Indian visa.
After he went through this effort and listed 49 countries, the form was rejected explaining it can only hold 10 countries in the response.
Words used in the form may be unfamiliar to many. One question was if one specifically traveled to countries belonging to a three letter code. Hard to guess what this is.
Another question referred to names of parents and grandparents and to all their citizenship they had. As a 65 year old traveler this may be a difficult question to respond to for some.
Uploading a photo following the exact requirement is easy for someone who works on Adobe Photoshop every day, but impossible for someone who uses a computer mostly for entertainment or email.
Scanning and uploading the passport photo is a little more flexible, but also has strict limitation on the form.
Dear All there may be tiny problems and overall compare to other Indian Evisa is very easy. I took a delegation of 70 people from Georgia to India in March. Faced no problem in filling applied paying fee and unexpectedly received all visas within 24 hours time. Thanks to MHA and MEA.
hello i used to to goa twice a year up until the visa prices went up and then it became even haeder to get a visa.there was 8 of us who went to goa,but now we go to vietnam where we do not need a visa .i have met many people from the uk and other parts of the world who dont go to india anymore because of the visa difficlties
$160 looks costly to you. Think about this US embassy that takes almost $300 and you have to wait for almost a year for an interview and chances are high of rejection with no refund.
Not all comments and words are true , from last 5 years i submit online visa for India ,and i got it within 24 hours, my last visa was 5 years i got the approval within 2 hours ,
And based on the category the question will be ,
But be aware to use the genuine website for the Indian Government,
I recently returned from a 3-week trip to India, for which I was traveling on a 5-year Visa that was obtained in late 2019 for a few cruise ship stops in India. I specifically paid the higher fee because I knew that I might want to return to India without having to deal with any e-Visa hassles again for a while. The official that had originally stamped my Passport on our cruise ship made a mistake on the expiration date, and hand-wrote the correct date over it (probably thinking that I wouldn’t be using it again after this cruise–or not caring that it looked “doctored”). When I went to the airport for my more recent trip, the airport officials accused me of “changing” my Visa stamp and refused to accept it–we lost a whole day of travel while trying to get the proper paperwork to prove that the Visa was valid. As a travel professional, I have traveled to India four times now. One of those times, the same thing happened to me that was discussed in your article. My Visa was denied, and I had to reapply and pay again, without knowing why it was denied the first time. Luckily, it was accepted the second time and I was able to travel. I hope to return to India again, but don’t know if it will be before my current Visa expires. I agree that the process needs to be streamlined and many issues should be corrected as it is stressful and confusing.