New Delhi: Despite last month's terror attack on a French magazine house, the craze of Mumbaikars' to visit Paris has not faded away. In fact, Mumbaikars have emerged as the single-largest group in the country seeking French visa. In last two years the number of visitors from city has increased by 29%, while the capital saw a rise of 22% in visas to France.
Moreover, the number of visas delivered by French consulates in India jumped 35% in 2014 from 2013, with a total of 87,972 visas issued from January to November last year.
The French embassy and consulate has taken various initiatives, such as 'Chalo Paris', to woo Indian visitors, other than simplifying the visa process, whereby tourist and business visas are issued in two working days.
Indians are now exempt from obtaining a visa to travel to the French Island of Reunion for stays up to 15 days: they get a free visa on arrival (VoA) at the airport. Also, as per the new simplified rules, no proof of hotel reservation is required for the visa application.
The French government has also introduced a custom-made official travel app for Indian tourists and it is available for download on the Google Play Store.
To make the country more amicable to Indian tourists, the government there has decided to drastically ease visa procedures. In addition to the six existing ones, eight new centres were inaugurated in Pune, Goa, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Hyderabad and Jaipur. Now visa are delivered within 72 hours in these new centers.
