IATO’s suggestions on Hassle Free Visa Regime and Visa Fee
12th December 2018
To All Members,
Sub: IATO’s suggestions on Hassle Free Visa Regime and Visa Fee
Dear Colleagues,
As was informed during the IATO luncheon meeting held on 5th December 2018, a conference was held on 4th December 2018 regarding streamlining of India’s Visa Regime at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. IATO was asked by the Ministry of Tourism to give its recommendations for the presentation to be made by the Ministry. Also I along with few office bearers and senior members attended the meeting. All our recommendations made to the ministry were included in the presentation made by the Ministry. Besides during the interaction, all these issues were personally taken up by us with Secretary Home, Ministry of Home Affairs and we were assured all these suggestions would be carefully examined and implemented in its best possible manner.
As a follow up, we had sent another representation yesterday to Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Tourism yesterday covering all issues raised by IATO. Copy of the letter is placed below for update in the matter.
In this regard, also attached please find a copy of the Press Release issued by Press information Bureau, Government of India dated 4th December 2018, which is self-explanatory.
Let us hope that all our recommendation are duly accepted and implemented in the coming months.
With regards,
Pronab Sarkar
President
DEL/119/2018 11th December 2018
Mr. Anil Malik
Joint Secretary (Foreigners)
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of India
Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium
New Delhi
Dear Mr. Malik
Sub: IATO’s suggestions on Visa Regime and Visa Fee
It was a pleasure meeting you on 4th December 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan during the Visa Conference organised by MHA.
Just to apprise you, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), is India's National Apex Body of Tour Operators with membership of over 1600 across the country. Our membership consists of the nation’s inbound tour operators, travel agents, hotel chains, airlines and other stake holders in the tourism & hospitality industry. The Membership of IATO controls over 90% of all inbound tourism into India.
Tourism is one of the highest job oriented industry. 1 tourist creates 7 jobs and increase of 1 million tourists will create 7 million jobs. With increase in tourist arrivals, this will also bring in valuable foreign exchange, we will be able to open new tourist destinations, more investments at new destinations and create jobs at other places. China is a big market and outbound tourism from China is 103.4 million. Similarly, outbound tourism from countries like Japan is 19.10 million, Malaysia – 14.5 million, Thailand – 10 million and total world international tourist arrivals are 120 billion.
As you are aware, international tourist arrivals to our country is just 10 million, which is merely 0.05% of the total international tourist arrivals. There are 4.5 billion followers of Buddhism in China and other South Asian Countries and we receive only 2 lakh Buddhist tourists which is tip of the iceberg. On one hand we are organizing Buddhist Tourism Conclave to promote Buddhist tourism to attract tourists from worldwide, and on the other hand we are increasing the visa fees. It is pertinent to mention here that for promoting such religious tourism, it is a negative impact and need to be looked into.
Introduction of E-Visa from 27th Nov 2014 has given a big boost to foreign tourist arrivals. It also improved the application date by extending 120 days before date of travel from 30 days earlier, making it valid for 2 entries for tourist visa and 3 entries for Medical Visa.
Our government has set a target of 20 million tourist arrivals by 2020, but with such increase in visa fee and implementation of GST, it has really become a difficult target for us to achieve as after the implementation of GST in July 2017, GST on Tourism and hospitality is one of the highest in the world.
On top of this, in May 2018, E-Visa fee has been increased from US$50 to US$80 plus bank charges. This increase was made without any prior notice and even without notice to Ministry of Tourism. Because of this sudden increase all tour operators had to face lot of financial losses.
Therefore, in order to achieve our target of 20 million tourists by 2020, we recommend the following:-
1. VISA FEE
a) It is our earnest request to reconsider charging E-Visa fee. Instead of USD 80/USD 100, it should be reduced to US $ 25 for all nationals till such we achieve our target.
b) There should not be any increase in Visa fee till such time this target is achieved.
c) Besides we suggest during off season from say from 1st April to 30th September, Visa Fee should be exempt for all foreign tourists. This will help the tourism and hospitality get business in off season and make use of unutilized infrastructure and manpower.
2. IMMIGRATIONS FACILITIES:-
a) Immigrations facilities at Airports need to be increased for arrivals and departures at all International airports. All the immigration counters should be E-visa enabled with facility of Bio- Metric so that tourists do not have to wait for long as it will ease the situation. Special care is also needed for senior citizens and ladies with children. Bio-metric process done in overseas countries has negatively impacted tourism business which has led to discouraging group movement, cancellation of groups. It involves intending tourists to travel from distant locations to Indian Missions (locations of bio metric) and also sometime hotel stay which becomes cost prohibitive. Sometime these additional costs of this extra travel are 10-20% of what they pay for the package to India. Tourist prefer to avoid the hassle and costs and therefore avoid India. In turn, they often visit our competitive countries who have visa friendly policies. Therefore, Bio-metric process for visas be done only on arrival at international airports in India.
b) For 5 years or 10 years’ visa, bio matric is essential and in case tourists once visited India on tourist E-visa should be exempted to be present in person for bio-metric at the Indian Embassy or Indian mission as their records are already available with Bureau of Immigration.
c) For the visitors coming on Medical E-visa, there should be more dedicated counters so that wheel chair passengers and differently abled passenger may not have to wait for long time.
d) There should be dedicated staff/volunteers to assist incoming passengers to guide them to the right counters, as upon arrival there is lot of confusion and passengers waste their time by standing in wrong queues after long journey. This creates an irritating first impression.
e) During peak hours when maximum flights land, it should be ensured that at the arrival, all the immigration counters are manned so that it takes less time to come out of immigration.
f) Similarly, for departures during peak hours, all immigrations counters should be fully manned to avoid long queues and time management.
3. GENERAL
a) The response time of official website of Government website https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html is very slow. Many a times, the application is filled up and due to slow server response, all the data filled up is gone waste and applicant has to fill up the entire data again.
b) Similarly, many a times due to slow server response, there is payment failure. This may be looked into. Success of E-Visa depends on how efficiently process can be completed.
c) The payment gateway should have minimum 3 banks, if not 4, as if one payment gateway is not working then tourists have the option to pay through other bank.
d) Visa Application Forms should be available in major foreign languages e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, etc.
4. HELPDESK
a) We receive number of complaints from the members/foreign tour operators/tourists, whenever they call helpdesk telephone number, many a times either there is no response or the response they get on their query is not satisfactory. Proper training should be given to the persons attending the queries on helpdesk no. 91-11-24300666
b) A nodal officer should be appointed to man the helpline from 6 pm to 10 am on all 7 days who should not only be able to give general queries but also can give assistance in case of any need by tourists on technical issues or any error on the Visa.
c) We receive complaint frequently that toll free number is not being attended. There should be one more alternative helpdesk toll free number starting with 1800……….. and should always be manned/attended.
5. FAKE VISA WEBSITES
a) There are many cases when foreign tourists submit their application on fake website for e-Visa. While we regularly keep advising all our foreign tour operators through our membership to file their application on correct website, it is requested that wide publicity should be given by the government through media campaign, Indian Embassies, High Commissions, Consulates and India tourism offices about this so that foreign tourists are not cheated and pay hefty amount for the same. Also all fake websites should be blocked and legal action be taken against them.
6. CONFERENCE VISA
India has a huge potential for MICE business but procedure to get conference Visa is very cumbersome and we need to simplify the process for issue of conference visa. At present a conference organizer is required to obtain approval of 3 Ministries namely - Nodal Ministry, Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs for organizing an international conference. On obtaining approval of MEA, the Indian Missions overseas issue conference visa to the delegates. In some cases, even after approval of MEA, the issue of visa takes weeks.
a) It is requested that there should be a single window clearance preferably on-line for Government approvals. However, clearance of MHA for delegates from certain countries requiring thorough check may continue. Simplifying the process for all other friendly countries will greatly benefit the industry.
b) E- Conference Visa is issued only for Government / PSU conferences. However, a larger number of conferences are organized by the private players in the industry for which e-visa at present is not applicable. It is recommended that e-conference visa may please be considered for non-government conferences also.
7. ENTRY BY ROAD FROM NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES
a) E Visa holder should be allowed to enter by road through Indian Borders especially Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan (Wagah Border) if possible.
8. TOUR LEADERS
a) For the tour leaders who are appointed by India tour operators to accompany the groups, condition of ceiling of minimum salary be removed.
Above suggestions are made with our practical experience and inputs from our foreign counterparts which are really valid and needs to be looked into on priority to help increase international tourist arrivals to our country.
With regards,
Sincerely,
Pronab Sarkar
President
Copy to:-
Mr. Rajiv Gauba
Secretary (Home)
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of India
North Block, New Delhi
Mr. Yogendra Tripathi
Secretary (Tourism)
Ministry of Tourism
Government of India
Transport Bhawan
New Delhi
Mr. Satyajeet Rajan
Director General (Tourism)
Ministry of Tourism
Government of India
Transport Bhawan
New Delhi
Mrs. Meenakshi Sharma
Additional Director General (Tourism)
Ministry of Tourism
Government of India
Transport Bhawan
New Delhi
Mr. Suman Billa
Joint Secretary (Tourism)
Ministry of Tourism
Government of India
Transport Bhawan
New Delhi
Mrs. Aashima Mehrotra
Director (Tourism)
Ministry of Tourism
Government of India
Transport Bhawan
New Delhi