India opens to vaccinated foreign tourists after 18 months

Fully vaccinated tourists on chartered flights were allowed to enter starting last month.

It comes as coronavirus infections have fallen significantly, with daily new cases hovering at just above 10,000 for over a month.

To encourage travellers to visit India, the government plans to issue 500,000 free visas through next March.

The moves are expected to boost the tourism and hospitality sector which was battered by the pandemic.

With more than 35 million reported coronavirus infections, India is the second-worst-hit country after the US.

Active coronavirus cases stand at 134,096, the lowest in 17 months, according to the health ministry.

Nearly 79 per cent of India’s adult population has received at least one vaccine dose while 38 per cent is fully vaccinated.

The federal government has asked state administrations to conduct door-to-door campaigns to accelerate the vaccine campaign.

Fewer than 3 million foreign tourists visited India in 2020, a drop of more than 75 per cent from 2019, when tourism brought nearly US$30 billion in earnings.

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