Even as India is trying to expand the visa-on-arrival scheme to give a boost to the tourism sector, a survey conducted for the tourism ministry reveals a rather grim picture of tourists struggling with signages, queues and foreign exchange issues while using the facility.

The survey reveals that tourists take over an hour and sometimes one-and-a-half hours at Mumbai airport for their visas. Though facilities are better at Delhi, tourists feel that there should be better publicity for the facility. At present, the visa-on-arrival facility has been provided in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. 

There are plans to extend it to Goa, Kochi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports. The survey points out that the facility would not be a success till immigration officers are better trained and dedicated counters are provided for visa-on-arrival facility.

Speaking to ET, tourism secretary RH Khwaja said, "The survey indicates that we need to work on infrastructure, training and reducing processing time. It also says language and foreign currency are major issues. We have had interactions with civil aviation ministry and home ministry and we have been assured that proper space would be provided for special counters".

During the survey only 4.55% of the tourists said that the system was absolutely hassle free. Though a majority of tourists were satisfied, most felt that utilities counters needed to be close by. The survey had included even immigration officials who felt that adequate publicity is required for this service and forms should be provided in the flights.

Khwaja said, "Not every tourist carries Indian rupees or US dollars with them. So they have to run between counters to get foreign currency exchanged. They lose a lot of time on that. Some face problems when they go to multiple counters and find the officials on a tea break. All these issues need to be ironed out. This facility will be extended to four more airports and now we have been assured by the Home Ministry that these would be addressed".

The visa-on-arrival facility had been introduced in January 2010 for tourists from five countries, Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore. A year later in January 2011, this was extended to citizens of Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar.

Now, the government is planning to expand this list even further to include more countries that are potential tourist markets. These include Germany, Thailand, Spain, Sweden, France, Norway, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Malaysia and Brunei.