Passport Power: More Visa-Free Destinations, High Spending, How Indians are Conquering the World

The administration of Narendra Modi has opened up travel to other countries for Indians, allowing them to travel for adventure and pleasure among other reasons. This has created a massive market for Indian tourists traveling overseas, forcing other travel destinations to compete with India for Indian travelers’ business.

“Revenge travel” has become the norm among Indians as the globe begins to heal from the Covid-19 epidemic. Indians’ interest in traveling abroad has grown as a result of a perfect storm of improved passport services, facilities for obtaining a visa upon arrival, international airports, increased middle-class earnings, and regional connections.

The intrepid Indian tourist is more prepared than ever, whether it is for casual sightseeing or for seeking out career prospects or educational chances. Indian visitors were rated as the second most self-assured in the Asia-Pacific area in a 2023 Booking.com study, just behind Hong Kong travelers.

More than 10 crore passports have been granted in the previous ten years, and more than 60 countries provide Indian citizens with visa-free and visa-on-arrival travel options, demonstrating the important role the Ministry of External Affairs has played in this trend. Notably, the most recent additions to this provision are Kenya and Malaysia.

AVAILABLE PASSPORTS AT A HISTORIC HIGH
According to Muktesh Pardeshi, Secretary of Consular, Passport, Visa & Overseas Indian Affairs, India has broken an all-time annual record by issuing more than 1.5 crore passports and related travel documents through passport offices in India and Missions and Posts abroad. This represents an increase of more than 16% over 2022.

In reality, despite obstacles brought on by the Covid-19 epidemic, more than 10 crore, or 100 million, passports have been granted during the last ten years. Thanks to digitization and the smooth operation of the application and screening procedures, passport issuance has accelerated at a rate never seen before, which is a significant improvement. Additionally, the average time to issue a passport has decreased, from 21 days in 2015 to 6 days in 2022.

Since 2014, the number of passports issued has steadily increased, beginning at 91 lakh. From 2015 until the epidemic years of 2020 and 2021, when the numbers fell to 64 lakh and 85 lakh, respectively, the yearly issuance continuously surpassed 1 crore. In 2022, there was a notable uptick, with 1.29 crore new passports being issued.

Since 2014, the number of offices offering services relating to passports has expanded in a way never seen before in the nation. Only 153 passport issuing offices existed in the nation in 2014; however, as of right now, there are over 521 passport service centers spread over almost all parliamentary constituencies. Every one of the 543 constituencies is to have a Passport Seva Kendra established by the government.

The Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) was decided to be established at Head Post Offices (HPO) and Post Offices (PO) across the nation in January 2017. This was a joint effort between the Department of Posts and the MEA, targeting communities without POPSK or Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). Currently, 431 POPSKs and 93 PSKs are in operation across the nation, adequately meeting the needs of applicants concerning passports.

More passport services are available around the nation thanks to the MEA and Department of Posts’ partnership. One prominent instance comes from the Northeast, where residents of many states, including Manipur and Nagaland, were dependent on a single office in Guwahati, Assam, to which they had to travel in order to complete the formal fingerprinting and interview process. This created logistical barriers to their goals. These kinds of annoyances are unprecedented given the sophisticated passport facilities that have just arrived in the US.

Furthermore, India is about to see a significant digital shift with the introduction of e-passports under the Passport Seva Programme 2.0 by year’s end. The new passports will include an embedded chip that stores biometric information, improving security and increasing the difficulty of forgeries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Ease of living” goal is in line with the program, as noted by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar this year. Improved data security, chip-enabled e-passports enabling easier international travel, and AI-powered service delivery are some of the improved passport services. Jaishankar emphasized the importance of the Passport Seva Program in the government’s “Digital India” effort, which uses cutting-edge tools like the mPassport Police App and DigiLocker integration to facilitate hassle-free travel.

Jaishankar urged India’s passport-issuing agencies to reaffirm their commitment to providing passport services in a timely, dependable, accessible, transparent, and efficient way in light of the Passport Seva Programme 2.0.

Previous Travel for Indians Without a Visa
India’s tourism industry is expanding rapidly, especially in the post-pandemic period when traveler spending has reached previously unheard-of levels. According to projections, Indian travelers will spend a total of $410 billion by 2030, making them the fourth-largest worldwide spenders. Compared to the pre-COVID era in 2019, when Indian travelers spent $150 billion, this amounts to a significant 173% rise, placing India as the sixth-largest global spender.

Due to their enormous purchasing power, Indians are also a popular tourist target for other countries, which has led to a dramatic increase in the number of countries that provide visa-free or visa-on-arrival access. Indian nationals are granted visa exemptions or on-arrival visas by more than 60 countries; Malaysia and Kenya are the most latest to join this list. At the zenith of the epidemic in 2020, India could only reach 23 nations.

Due to a surge in Indian travel to Southeast Asia, Thailand recently declared that Indians would no longer need a visa to enter the country for a period of six months. Indian nationals are also granted visa-free access to Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.

For a year, starting on December 1, Malaysia waived the need for visas for Indian tourists and business travelers. The travel ministry formally declared that the visa-free entrance would last until December 2024. It is predicted that this decision would result in a significant rise in yearly inbound tourist arrivals from India of between 30% and 45%.

According to the Henley Passport Index, which is largely based on the number of travel places its holders may visit without a previous visa, India’s passport scores low at 80th place. Apart from the fact that India only reciprocates comparable benefits with around four other countries, there are a number of other possible reasons for this, including health recommendations, security concerns, and underlying post-colonial attitudes. The passport’s power will increase as India opens up to additional countries.

For instance, in an effort to boost its struggling tourist industry, China is allowing people of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia to enter the country without a visa for a year. China’s passport comes in at number 67, with 76 visa-free travel options.

India reported over 21 million outbound foreign departures in 2022, but the nation has not yet recovered to the 26.9 million outbound international departures it saw in 2019—the year when Covid forced an end to overseas travel.

India, the most populated nation on earth, has the capacity to develop a massive outbound travel industry. The increase in Indian outbound tourism gives India diplomatic power and is encouraging economic and people-to-people relations with other countries. This will encourage more governments to provide Indians with seamless or visa-free travel.

Overall, these trends show a clear increase in Indians traveling abroad, driven by the Ministry of External Affairs’ astute actions, which have given the already growing Indian tourism sector further impetus.