“More than 9 million foreign tourists visited India from January to November 2017. An increase amounted 15.6% against the same period of the last year”, - the local portal The Economic Times reported on Tuesday. "Over 11 months of 2017 more than 9 million foreign tourists came to India. Only in November the country was visited by more than 1 million people. In comparison with the same period of the last year the number of tourists in India grew by 15.6%.

The minimum price for weekly tours from Moscow to Goa Indian resort from November 6 to 8 starts from 30.5 thousand Rubles ($ 527) for two persons. This is noticeably lower than the cost of the flight, which is about 21 thousand Rubles ($ 346) for one person. Such results were shown by price monitoring in online booking systems of tour operators, conducted by the professional portal TourDom.ru on October 27. Market participants not hurry to make conclusions about the global oversupply of air transportation on the direction based on sales of tours for the first flights of the winter season.

“Airline "Pobeda" has received permission for regular flights from Yekaterinburg and Astrakhan to Indian state of Goa”, - according to the materials of Rosaviation. On both routes the carrier is allowed to fly with a frequency of once a week. In addition, the "Victory" has received approval for flights from St Petersburg to Tbilisi - 7 times per week. However, it was refused to the company to perform flights from Moscow to Kazakhstan - to Kyzylorda and Kustanay, as well as to Vienna. "Pobeda" is a low cost carrier of "Aeroflot" group. Flights are carried out by the company's 12 Boeing-737-800 in a single-class layout.

In the new winter season the Russian airline company “AZUR Air” has planned an ambitious program of flights to Goa, the popular Indian resort, from eight Russian cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa. Airline “AZUR Air” in the winter season has significantly expanded its destination network by adding a number of departures from the Russian regions to the Indian resort.

Tour operator Connaissance Tour, who worked on the Russian market since 1994 and specialized on tours to Sri Lanka and India, stopped working, according to the official website of the company.

The tourist season in Goa is about to end; tour operators are close to finish their flight programs. Tour operator BTA Group, for example, is completing its flight program on April 4. CEO of the company Revaz Mgeladze says that transportation had to turn off early, as demand fell. Usually the flights on this destination finish in mid-May. So it was in the past two years. Overall drop in numbers of tourists in Goa this season Mgeladze estimates by 50 per cent.

Introduction of easier visa regime with India for Russians will increase the number of Russian tourists in Indian resorts, the Association of Russian Tour Operators (ATOR) said on Friday. On February 5, the Indian government expanded the list of countries whose citizens can get visas upon arrival at the airport. The list now includes 180 countries, among them Russia. The rule will be in force from October 2014 in nine airports, including the International Indira Ghandi Airport in Delhi, Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai and Dabolim in Goa.

India issues electronic visas for visitors from 43 countries, including Russia and Ukraine, Indian Deputy Interior Minister Anil Goswami said on Thursday. The 43 countries also include Brazil, Israel, the United States, Mexico and Australia. Tourists who plan to travel to India fill a form on the special Internet website and pay a visa fee online.