The e-tourist visa facility presently available for some of the countries will boost tourist arrivals in the country, Jyotsna Suri, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said on Monday.
"As per a government statement during January-March 2015, over 75,800 tourist arrived by Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) facility as compared to 5,841 TVoA during January-March 2014," she said.
Suri, while talking to IANS here on Monday, said: "This clearly shows that more and more tourists now are keen to travel to India and availing this facility, which is much easier for the persons willing to travel to India."
Suri is in the city in connection with the 8th edition of the Great Indian Travel Bazaar being organised by Rajasthan's department of tourism, the union tourism ministry and FICCI.
She said e-visa for 44 countries is "already operational while 150 countries are in the pipeline".
Suri, who also is the chairperson and managing director of Bharat Hotels said the government should incentivise setting up of budget hotels. "The state governments should encourage setting up of budget hotels by giving them incentives and sops."
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She said to boost tourism infrastructure facilities needs to be improved.
"The present government at the centre is working towards that," she said, adding that air connectivity needs to be improved, more flights are needed and so also improvement both in the train and at the stations should be upgraded.
"The quality of roads also needs improvement. And with an aim to give fillip to the aviation sector, state governments should try to reduce tax on aviation turbine fuel," Suri said.