Tourism Minister Assures IATO To Increase Electronic Tourist Visa From 30 To 90 Days

In recent meeting between IATO Indian Association of Tour Operators, Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Minister of State I/C Tourism and Culture was very fruitful in terms of extending electronic-tourist visa from present 30 days to 90 days. The assurance as provided by ministers that in the upcoming budget the duration of electronic-tourist visa will be extended. The electronic-tourist visa facility will be extended to about 150 nations by this fiscal year. Minister also confirmed that decisions would be taken soon on providing multiple electronic-tourist visas from the present where only one entry is provided.

In the meeting, IATO also suggested to tabulate the increasing fees of monuments, as they are not increased since long time. As per government resource, fees are likely to be increased by 350%; however, IATO suggested increasing gradually by 50% in near future. Apart from these, other major issues of discussion were decreasing of processing time of biometrics to 15 minutes, exemption of tourism industry from tax on basis of foreign exchange earnings, fixing free baggage’s up to 20 kg and filling vacant posts in Indian tourist offices along with starting rafting camp on River Ganga.