International visitor arrivals to India increased strongly in May 2017, driven by the rising popularity of the country’s e-tourist visa scheme.
According to data from India’s Ministry of Tourism, the country welcomed a total of 630,000 overseas arrivals last month, up 19.5% year-on-year.
Once again, neighbouring Bangladesh was the largest feeder market for India in May 2017, accounting for 29.7% of the total arrivals. The US (14.4%), UK (6.8%), Malaysia (3.6%) and China (2.9%) completed the top five visitor source markets.
The number of visitors arriving in India on e-tourist visas also rose sharply in May, up 55.3% year-on-year to a total of 68,000. This accounted for 10.8% of total arrivals.
For the first five months of 2017, India has now welcomed a total of 4.22 million international visitors, up 16.4% year-on-year. Of this total, 650,000 entered India on e-tourist visas, up 49.4% year-on-year.
