Indian tourists boycott Turkey & Azerbaijan for being pro-Pakistan

New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) Hundreds of Indian tourists are now cancelling their trips to Turkey and Azerbaijan as these countries supported Pakistan in the conflict with India following the massacre of 26 tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam by Islamabad-backed terrorists.

Leading online travel booking platforms MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip have reported mass cancellations and a sharp drop in Indian tourists wanting to travel to Turkey and Azerbaijan due to their anti-India stand during Operation Sindoor.

"Indian travellers have expressed strong sentiments over the past one week, with bookings for Azerbaijan and Turkey decreasing by 60 per cent, while cancellations have surged by 250 per cent during the same period," MakeMyTrip said in a statement on Wednesday.

While the platform has not stopped offering flight bookings to Turkey and Azerbaijan on its website, MakeMyTrip said, “It stands in solidarity with our nation and out of deep respect for our armed forces, we strongly support this sentiment and advise against all non-essential travel to Azerbaijan and Turkey. We have already discontinued all promotions and offers on our platform to discourage tourism to these two destinations."

EaseMyTrip founder and former chairman Nishant Pitti said that the company’s portal has seen a 22 per cent cancellation of trips by tourists to Turkey and more than 30 per cent cancellations to Azerbaijan.

He urged travellers to avoid visiting Turkey and Azerbaijan due to their open support for Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

Pitti, in a post on X, also referred to the issue of celebrities endorsing Chinese products and Chinese-owned websites and highlighted the need for national interests to be given precedence over individual benefits or convenience.

"Valid question - what about websites owned by Chinese firms? What about celebs promoting Chinese products? The answer lies in our choices. Stop using such sites. Boycott those endorsements. National interest, personal convenience or profit. Time to walk the talk," Pitti wrote on X.

Pitti also said that the platform has chosen not to cancel or boycott existing bookings to avoid widespread inconvenience, as many travellers use Turkey simply as a layover.

The boycott by Indian tourists is expected to have a significant impact on the economies of the two countries.

As per the Azerbaijan Tourism Board, as many as 243,589 Indian tourists visited the country in 2024. The tourism board expects a growth of 11 per cent from now until the next 10 years. Turkey saw Indian arrivals at 3,30,000 passengers in 2024, while the number stood at 119,503 in 2014 as per the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey.

The estimated spend per Indian tourist in Turkey is $1,200–1,500, with the total estimated Indian tourist spend in Turkey in 2023 working out to $350–400 million (approximately Rs 3,000 crore)

Turkey is a country that is highly dependent on tourism, with the sector contributing as much as 12 per cent to the country’s GDP. The tourism sector accounts for 10 per cent of the total employment in the country. India is one of Turkey’s fastest-growing source markets.

--IANS

sps/dan