Authorities have announced that the scheme, which launched on November 27, 2014, currently covers travellers from 77 countries, entering India at nine different airports.

Now, following further changes, the UK is one of 36 countries being added to the list with the changes taking effect on August 15.

After then, applicants will need to apply for the e-tourist visa a minimum of four days in advance of their arrival with a window of 30 days. The fee is $60 for the visa, which last 30 days once in India.

Authorities have also added a further seven airports to the list of nine where arriving tourists can have their visas processed with both Jaipur and Varanasi now on the list.

The move has been welcomed by the industry, which has been so concerned about recent proposals which could have seen Brits forced to attend 14 different regional centres for biometric testing that delegates met with an Indian delegation in March to discuss them.

If Only business development manager Neil Sealy said: “This is great news. I expect that this will be a real boost for tourism to India because obviously it simplifies the visa process and makes it a lot fairer for prospective travellers. It also means people can book last minute too.

“I suspect they did listen at that meeting where a number of tour operators voiced their concerns and hopefully the message was made clear that India was losing market share to neighbouring countries.”