THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Withdrawal of the e-visa facility for visitors from the UK is set to deal a huge blow to the state’s tourism industry that was hoping for a revival after two years of pandemic-induced shutdown. Visitors from the UK constitute the largest chunk of foreign tourists to the state. The Centre had withdrawn the e-visa facility last year for the UK and Canada, reportedly as a reciprocal action to those countries not extending the same facility to Indian nationals. With the skies opened up this year after Covid subsided, the absence of e-visa facility is likely to deter a number of British citizens from visiting India.
Visitors from the UK will have to apply for regular paper visa at the Indian embassy, which many of them find very cumbersome. “For UK citizens who live in the countryside, a trip to London for the visa would involve an overnight stay and the expenses would cost almost as much as their travel to India,” said a UK-based tour operator. According to the tour operator, many regular visitors to Kerala from the UK have cancelled their holiday plans and have opted for other destinations.
In 2019, when the pandemic and related flight restrictions had not affected the tourism sector, visitors from the UK constituted more than 15%, or 1.86 lakh of the nearly 12 lakh foreign tourist arrivals to the state. Tourists from the UK are also considered to be high spenders, bringing valuable foreign exchange to the country.
“The UK has been the anchor source market for the state because of the cultural affinities the British have with India. They are the ones who venture out to new destinations and promote them globally. To deny e-visa facility to visitors from that country would undoubtedly hit the tourism sector hard,” said Jose Dominic, co-founder of the CGH Earth brand of hotels and a veteran tourism entrepreneur.
The rural economy, that has been supported by a bunch of adventurous foreign travellers, mostly from the UK, will also stand to lose out, Dominic reasoned. He added that the Responsible Tourism initiatives in the state became a huge success primarily due to the patronage of UK tourists who are known supporters of sustainable tourism.
E M Najeeb, senior vice-president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), said the organisation had given many representations to the Centre to reinstate the e-visa facility for the UK and Canada but to no avail. He added that a re-think of the policy was essential before September this year, as the tourist inflow from the UK is likely to pick up.
“Not only will the number of visitors from UK to India, particularly Kerala, be high from September, there will be a number of long-stays of such tourists in the state as well. In addition to the adverse fallout for our tourism sector, the country will stand to lose in terms of foreign exchange too if such restrictions continue,” he said.