THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
The two major airports in Kerala– Kochi and Trivandrum received over 57,140 e visa tourists in 2016, compared to 25,395 from 71 countries in 2015. The introduction of e-Tourist visa for 125 countries has contributed significantly to the 125 percent increase in tourist arrivals.
Trivandrum International Airport received 16,848 tourists from 91 countries, while Cochin International Airport welcomed 40,292 tourists from 110 countries.
UK tops the list of foreign e- visa tourist arrivals to Kerala, with a 26.92 per cent share. The US and Germany rank second and third on the list, with 11.99 percent and 8 percent of the tourist numbers respectively.
“Kerala Tourism is planning to promote e visa facilities in more countries so that it will increase the inflow of e visa tourist to Kerala,” noted Tourism Director UV Jose
France (6.09%), Australia (5.37%) and UAE (5.02) are the other main countries whose citizens visited Kerala using the e-visa facility. The highest number of e-visa tourist visa arrivals were in the month of December and lowest in the month of June.
