Following the recent developments in India’s entry rules and some pressure from trade sources, India authorities have revealed their consideration of reintroducing e-Visas for British travellers.
Though nothing has been confirmed on this date, Indian authorities have spoken on the matter since the backlash and a decision on this potentially good news is expected ‘within weeks or even days’, according to Indian officials. This poses an exciting prospect for many UK travel businesses and travellers who struggled with the currently limited restrictions concerning Indian visas.
At the beginning of October this year, India announced the conflicting change to its visa entry rules. Under these rules, UK visitors to India could no longer apply for a visa through some specific firms and could only apply for a visa at one of nine in-person processing centres in the country. This put a large limit on those looking to travel to India and many businesses put out warnings in response, believing that many consumers would no longer be able to get a visa in time for their holiday.
These original changes that caused such backlash originally came about due to a dispute between the UK and Indian governments concerning visa access rules for Indian nationals arriving in the UK (all up-to-date entry restrictions on destinations for UK travellers can be found on the Foreign Travel Advice page).
Recently, at the WTM conference that occurred on Monday the 7th and Tuesday the 8th of November, Indian tourism officials were urging consumers to apply for their visas early, promoting travel to India. It was, however, admitted that this conflict has caused some damage to the travel trade.
The additional secretary at the Ministry of Tourism in India, Rakesh Kumar Verma, said, “We are aware of this challenge, and it is under consideration at a very high level, and I am sure this will be addressed very soon.”
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