The Narendra Modi-led government has put wings on Indians flying abroad for leisure and adventure among other purposes, raising a colossal market of outbound Indian tourists which has left foreign tourist destinations in a race to open up and cater to Indians.
As the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, the phenomenon of “revenge travel” has taken over among Indians. Foreign travel has surged among Indians as a perfect confluence of enhanced passport services, visa-on-arrival facilities, international airports, regional connectivity and rising middle-class incomes come together to facilitate a seamless experience for Indian travellers.
The enthusiastic Indian traveller is more ready than ever before, whether in pursuit of employment opportunities, education, or simply for leisurely sightseeing. In a 2023 Booking.com survey, Indians were ranked as the second most confident tourists in the Asia-Pacific region, just after Hong Kongers.
The significant role played by the Ministry of External Affairs is evident in this trend, with more than 10 crore passports issued in the last decade and over 60 countries offering visa-free and visa-on-arrival facilities to Indians. Notably, Malaysia and Kenya are the latest additions to this provision.
Passport Issuance At All-Time High
Breaking an all-time annual record, India has issued more than 1.5 crore passport and related travel documents through passport offices in India and Missions and Posts abroad, marking an uptick of over 16% over 2022, according to Muktesh Pardeshi Secretary of Consular, Passport, Visa & Overseas Indian Affairs.
In fact, over the past decade, more than 10 crore or 100 million passports have been issued, overcoming challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Passport issuance has experienced an unprecedented acceleration, thanks to digitisation and the streamlined flow of the application and vetting processes, marking a notable improvement. The average passport issuance time has also fallen from 21 days in 2015 to 6 days in 2022.
The issuance of passports has shown a consistent increase since 2014, starting at 91 lakh. From 2015, the annual issuance consistently exceeded 1 crore until the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, during which the numbers decreased to 64 lakh and 85 lakh, respectively. However, there was a significant rebound in 2022, with 1.29 crore new passports issued.
The number of offices providing passport-related services has increased unprecedentedly in the country since 2014. In 2014, there were only 153 passport issuing offices in the country, but today that number stands at over 521 centres issuing passport services established in the country to cover nearly every parliamentary constituency. The government aims to establish a Passport Seva Kendra in all 543 constituencies.
In January 2017, a decision was made to establish Passport Kendras, known as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK), at Head Post Offices (HPO) and Post Offices (PO) across the country. This initiative, aimed at constituencies without Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) or POPSK, was a collaborative effort between the MEA and the Department of Posts. At present, there are 93 PSKs and 431 POPSKs operational across the country, effectively addressing the passport-related requirements of applicants.
The collaboration between the MEA and the Department of Posts has ensured greater coverage of passport services in the country. A notable example is from the Northeast where people from several states such as Manipur or Nagaland relied on one office in Guwahati, Assam, which they had to travel to for the procedural interview and finger-printing, adding logistical impediments to their aspirations. Such inconveniences are unheard of in recent years as elaborate passport facilities have arrived in the states.
Moreover, India is set to undergo a major digital transformation with the launch of e-passports by the end of the year under Passport Seva Programme 2.0. The new passports will feature an integrated chip storing biometric data, enhancing security and making forgery more difficult.
This year, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted the initiative’s alignment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Ease of living’. The enhanced passport services include AI-powered service delivery, chip-enabled e-passports for smoother overseas travel, and improved data security. Jaishankar stressed the significant role of the Passport Seva Programme in the government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative, promoting hassle-free travel with innovations such as the mPassport Police App and integration with DigiLocker.
In light of Passport Seva Programme 2.0, Jaishankar called on India’s passport issuing authorities to renew their pledge to provide passport services in a timely, reliable, accessible, transparent and efficient manner.
Prior Visa-Free Travel for Indians
India’s tourism sector is undergoing significant growth, particularly in the post-pandemic era, witnessing unprecedented spending by travellers. Projections indicate that by 2030, the total expenditure by Indian travellers will reach $410 billion, positioning India as the fourth-largest global spender. This represents a substantial 173% increase from the pre-Covid period in 2019 when Indian travellers spent $150 billion, ranking India as the sixth-largest global spender.
With such staggering spending capacity, Indians are also a hot tourist market for foreign nations to attract because of which the number of nations that provide visa-free or visa-on-arrival access too has sharply risen. More than 60 nations extend visa-free or visa-on-arrival facilities to Indians, with most recent inclusions being Malaysia and Kenya. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, India had access to only 23 countries.
Recently, Thailand announced visa-free entry for Indians for six months owing to a frenzy among Indian tourists to visit the Southeast Asian nation. Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka also provide visa-free entry to Indians.
Starting from December 1, Malaysia eliminated visa requirements for Indian leisure and business travellers for a year. The visa-free entry will remain in effect until December 2024, as officially announced by the tourism ministry. This decision is anticipated to contribute to a substantial increase of 30%-45% in annual inbound tourist arrivals from India.
India’s passport ranks low at 80th position as per the Henley Passport Index, a ranking primarily based on the number of travel destinations their holders can access without the need for a prior visa. The reasons for this can be many— some health advisories, security concerns and underlying post-colonial biases apart from the fact that India reciprocates similar privileges to only about four nations. If India opens up to more nations, the strength of the passport will further improve.
For example, China is trialling visa-free travel for citizens from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia for a year to heal its battered tourism sector. China’s passport ranks 67th with 76 visa-free destinations open to it.
In 2022, India recorded more than 21 million international departures but the country is yet to return to the peak of 26.9 million international departures in 2019 before Covid brought international travel to a halt.
As the world’s most populous country, India has the potential to raise a colossal outbound tourist market. The growth in India’s outbound tourists is a diplomatic leverage in India’s kitty, and bodes well for economic and people-to-people ties across destinations, which shall tempt more countries to facilitate seamless or entirely visa-free travel for Indians.
All in all, these developments reflect an out-and-out upsurge in foreign travel among Indians, expedited by an adroit Ministry of External Affairs, whose efforts have added wings to a burgeoning market of Indian travellers.
Comments
0 comment