When applying for a tourist visa, you will need to submit a document called as personal cover letter or covering letter for tourist visa to help the consulate understand the reason for your trip.

In fact, your cover letter is the first document that the visa consulate will read and will play an important role in deciding whether to approve or reject your visa application. But how to write a cover letter for tourist visa ? Is there a standard format ? What should a tourist cover letter contain ?

This article will answer the above questions and as a bonus show you how you can get your cover letter in under 5 minutes without you having to write it on your own using FlightGen App .

Is a cover letter for needed tourist visa ?

Yes. A cover letter is a vital part of your visa documents and you need to provide one when you apply for a tourist visa. Not only that, you also need to mention your travel itinerary as part of your cover letter.

Here is a confirmation from VFS.com on the same.

As seen in the above screenshot you will need to provide a cover letter even if it is not part of the visa requirements or explicitly asked by the visa consulate.

What details should be added in a cover letter ?

Your cover letter, when applying for a tourist visa must contain :

• Addressing the consulate (with consulate address)
• Summary dates of your travel in the region travel
• Countries of travel (If schengen or visiting multiple countries)
• Purpose of travel in about 2 sentences
• Day wise travel itinerary breakdown. (Mandatory for tourist and business visas)
• Who is bearing the expense for the trip ?
• Mention the proof of sustenance such as credit cards , bank statements
• Your employment or business information
• Documents submitted for your visa.
• Your Contact information if the consulate wants to get in touch for some reason

All these details must be typed, signed and submitted as a printout of A4 size along with your visa application.

How to create a cover letter for a tourist visa application ?

As you may have observed, we have used create instead of write as in type yourself. You can easily create a cover letter using FlightGen app for any visa application in under 5 minutes.

FlightGen is designed work as a Wizard, which means you just need to follow the instructions like answering 20 or so questions in a sequence, add your day-wise travel plan and select the documents that you are submitting for your visa process.

All that is left to do is download your cover letter for tourist visa by completing payment and you are free to download your cover letter. Also your entire details are saved in FlightGen allowing you to make changes to your cover letter any time you want and download it without additional payment.

Pay once and make changes for ever !!

The app works fine on all android, IOS devices including iPads.

What is a travel itinerary ? Should I include it in the cover letter ?

A travel itinerary is a day wise break down of your travel that you intend to pursue if your visa is approved. It is one of the mandatory documents to be submitted when applying for a tourist visa, especially a Schengen visa.

Although it is not necessary to include your travel itinerary in your cover letter itself and it is ok to add it as a separate document as part of your visa application, why would you want to complicate things ? Adding it as part of the cover letter for a tourist visa is a much cleaner option.

FlightGen app knows this so we have included the option of adding your travel itinerary in the cover letter itself . This can be done either automatically (if consecutive days) or manually (if you want to add your own dates) based on your trip start and end dates.

To know more about travel itinerary for visa, you can visit here.

• Travel Dates 
• Purpose of travel such as backpacking, honeymoon or may be attend a concert. 
• Day wise itinerary (Mandatory for tourist visas) explaining what is the exact plan you have once you enter the country . Ex : 20/12/2022 : Land in Paris, 21/12/2022 : Visit Eiffel tower and Louvre museum , 22/12/2022 : Visit the Chateau in Lyon 
• Who is bearing the expense?
• If you are self employed  or working or retired or a minor ? Again the visa documents will change based on your work status.

So FlightGen App is designed to keep these things in mind and create based on your travel purpose

Cover letter for tourist visa based on employment status

Your employment status plays an important role on what has to be part of the cover letter as there can be several combinations of the same such as

Tourist visa + employeed ?

Tourist visa + self employeed ?

Tourist visa + retired ?

So based on your employment status there would be minor changes in your cover letter along with the visa requirements that you are submitting.

If employed

If your work status is employed then two important information must be in your cover letter.

• Designation in the company
• Company name

If Self- Employed

If you are self employed,then you need add your nature of business information in brief . For example :

• I own a flower shop in Delhi for the last 10 years
• I am a practicing lawyer/doctor/driver and have been plying my trade for the last 10 years.
• I am an Android development consultant and have been working for over 10 years
• I am freelance android developer working on other clients projects for over 5 years.

If Unemployed

For unemployed individuals you must mention proof of sustenance which is basically how you are going to fund your trip. Are you paying with your savings ? is your parent or spouse sponsoring the trip ? Is your trip sponsored by an organisation or a company ?

If Retired

If you are retired, then you need to mention it in your cover letter and in the visa requirements sections mention your proof of sustenance such as pensions, savings or any additional income such as rent or fixed deposits .

Template for cover letter for tourist visa

You can use the below example to create your cover letter for tourist visa. Please note that some details, especially the visa documents section and the employment section may differ and you will need to modify your document for the same.