Niti Aayog proposes simplified visa rules to boost Telangana foreign tourist arrivals

In a bid to revive foreign tourist arrivals in Telangana, India’s national advisory body Niti Aayog has proposed liberalising the country's visa regime by introducing a tourist visa-on-arrival framework and simplifying e-visa categories. The recommendations were detailed in Hyderabad in a report titled "Unlocking Growth in Tourism and Hospitality Sector," which aims to convert travel intent into actual visits.

The advisory body recommended a phased shift to a tourist visa-on-arrival (VoA) framework that offers a 90-day, multiple-entry facility for select countries. It also called for rationalising current e-visa categories into broader classes, including tourism, business, short-term medical, short-term student, and dependents.

To support these changes, the report suggested strengthening digital and payment systems through real-time verification, global payment integration, and biometric checks. It also proposed visitor retention measures like loyalty programmes and a tourist refund scheme.

According to the report, foreign tourist inflows in Telangana have not yet recovered to pre-Covid levels. This stagnation is attributed to reduced international marketing budgets, a shift in traveller preference towards lower-cost Southeast Asian destinations, and persistent visa-related constraints.

The report identified several friction points in the current e-visa process, such as fragmented portals requiring repeated data entry, extensive form fields, technical failures like crashes and session timeouts, incompatibility with mobile devices, rejection of foreign card payments, and weak customer support. It noted that the poor interface has also led to a rise in fraudulent lookalike websites.

The report highlighted that restrictive visa requirements can depress inbound travel by up to 70 percent, while visa facilitation could raise arrivals by up to 25 percent. Currently, India's UN Tourism Visa Openness Index score stands at 38.14, trailing behind peers like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia.