In 2014, international tourist arrivals reached an all-time high, with a record of 1,138 million overnight visitors-a 4.7 percent increase from 2013. This increase follows a sustained period Iof growth in international tourist arrivals since the financial crisis of 2008, and a 23 percent increase since the year before the crisis. Travel for holidays, recreation and other forms of leisure account for just over half of all international tourists (52 percent or 568 million), followed by travel for other reasons, such as visiting friends and relatives, religious reasons and pilgrimage, and health treatment (27 percent). Some 14 percent of international tourists reported travelling for business and professional purposes; the purpose of visit for the remaining seven percent of arrivals is not specified.

Such an increase in international tourism has been facilitated as governments have started to pay closer attention to visa procedures. One indicator of this is the fact that in 2014, 62 percent of the world’s population required a traditional visa from the embassy prior to departure, down from 77 percent in 2008. Moreover, a total of 50 destinations significantly facilitated the visa process for citizens of 30 or more countries between 2010 and 2014, by changing their visa policies from “visa required” to either “e-visa,” “visa on arrival” or “no visa required.” Of all the facilitative measures, the most popular measure implemented by destinations remains the introduction of “visa on arrival”-instead of the “visa required”-where 56 percent of all improvements were made between 2010 and 2014.

This issue brief analyses recent reforms of the tourist visa process of India. On the surface, recent initiatives seem impressive. However, as often, details matter, and the analysis shows that the Indian initiatives are rather void and partly poorly implemented. It is also noted that the Immigration Bureau of India states that tourists coming to India still prefer to get their visas beforehand. These findings raise pertinent questions on how the e-tourist visa can make a real impact on the Indian economy. The conclusion suggests ways to fix the shortcomings of the scheme before extending it to 150 countries as suggested by the Finance Minister in his Annual Budget for 2015-2016. Such a review should preferably include learning from other countries that are also working to facilitate their visa processes, such as Australia. Importantly, the findings are of a wider interest, since the movement of persons is crucial not only for tourism but also for businesses that want to connect to global value chains as well as for partners abroad.