Despite an enormous urge for food for journey publish Covid-19, visa application volumes continued to lag behind 2019 levels, in keeping with knowledge from visa companies supplier VFS Global.
Visa application volumes noticed a progress of 16% in 2023 as in comparison with 2022, and touched 93% of 2019 levels. India absolutely resumed worldwide air journey from March 2022 after a spot of two years although a restricted variety of flights to over 30 international locations have been allowed underneath “air-bubble” agreements.
While record-high air fares globally could have been a dampener for some, the demand for journey was large and continued nicely past the height summer season journey season of April to June.
“We continued to witness unprecedented demand from India and the entire South Asia region in 2023 which led to an extended peak outbound travel season with steady visa application volumes witnessed until December. We are confident that this positive travel momentum will sustain in 2024 as well,” Vishal Jairath, Head – South Asia, VFS Global, mentioned. The agency carries out visa processing on behalf of 52 shopper international locations.
He suggested that travellers should apply for the visas nicely prematurely, and together with air tickets and lodges, to keep away from the last-minute rush. Most international locations settle for visa functions as much as 90 days earlier than the date of journey. The revised Schengen Visa Code, efficient February 2, 2020, additionally permits one to use six months earlier than the date of journey.
Top locations for journey from India have been Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the U.Ok., and the U.S.. The sequence of nations is organized in alphabetic order.
