Last month we reported that in a bid to help boost their tourism industry, South Korea would begin giving out free smartphone rentals to tourists who apply for it on their tourism website. Given that communication is very important when traveling to new and and foreign destinations where you might not speak the language, this would be a huge convenience.Turns out that over in India, the government is considering something similar. Recently, the country’s home Ministry has given the approval for a proposal by the Tourism Ministry in which visitors to the country will be given a mobile SIM card for their use in the country during their stay.
According to a Home Ministry official, “Even though there are issues of security, communication is important for any visitor. Since we are giving e-tourist visa to citizens of a limited number of countries and that too after proper verification, we are giving our approval to the proposal of giving SIM cards to tourists.”
This gift will consist of a SIM card, map booklets, and a CD containing information about various tourist destinations. However as the statement above reads, this only applies to tourists who come to India on an e-tourist visa, which right now is only applicable to 113 countries, with plans to raise it to 150 countries by March this year.
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