With Turkey and Azerbaijan going through a backlash in India over their assist for Pakistan through the army confrontation following the Pahalgam terror assault, journey reserving portals are reporting a notable drop in bookings from Indians for these international locations — and a bounce in cancellations. Some Indian journey service suppliers have additionally stopped providing flight and resort bookings for the 2 international locations, whereas just a few others are dissuading Indians from travelling there.
Turkey and Azerbaijan are widespread locations for Indians with the variety of travellers and direct flight connections rising lately. Istanbul can also be a significant aviation hub utilized by Indian flyers to connect with locations past Turkey as nicely. Now, given the rising clamour to boycott these international locations, the state of affairs is harking back to the requires boycott of Maldives in January 2024 when a diplomatic row erupted following derogatory remarks in opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by three Maldivian deputy ministers.
“Indian travellers have expressed robust sentiments over the previous one week, with bookings for Azerbaijan and Turkey reducing by 60 per cent, whereas cancellations have surged by 250 per cent throughout the identical interval. In solidarity with our nation and out of deep respect for our armed forces, we strongly assist this sentiment and advise all in opposition to all non-essential journey to Azerbaijan and Turkey. We have now already discontinued all promotions and presents on our platform to discourage tourism to those two locations,” a spokesperson for on-line journey reserving service supplier MakeMyTrip mentioned on Wednesday, with out elaborating additional on the info.
One other on-line journey company, EaseMyTrip, mentioned it’s seeing excessive cancellation charges of bookings for Azerbaijan and Turkey. EaseMyTrip has already seen 22 per cent of bookings for Turkey cancelled over the previous week, and 30 per cent for Azerbaijan.
“In view of the phobia assault in Pahalgam on April 22…and war-like conditions between India and Pakistan, it’s disheartening to notice that Turkey and Azerbaijan have prolonged their assist to Pakistan. EaseMyTrip strongly advise limiting journey to those international locations except completely important. Please keep up to date on present developments and train warning whereas making journey plans,” EaseMyTrip had mentioned in a journey advisory Friday.
“…Indian vacationers have excessive spending energy, making them key contributors to international economies. By consciously redirecting tourism move, we cut back financial assist to international locations taking anti-India positions. India’s personal tourism business can profit by retaining this spend throughout the nation or redirecting it to nations aligned with Indian pursuits,” EaseMyTrip’s Founder and Chairman Nishant Pitti mentioned in a social media put up Wednesday.
In the meantime, journey reserving service suppliers, resembling Ixigo and Cox & Kings, have suspended new bookings for Turkey and Azerbaijan. “This resolution is pushed by our dedication to uphold ideas that matter deeply to us and the folks of our nation. We additionally advise Indian travellers to train discretion and keep away from any non-essential journey to those locations till there’s higher readability and alignment within the broader geopolitical surroundings,” Cox & Kings director Karan Agarwal had mentioned Friday.
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In a put up on X Friday, Ixigo introduced: “In solidarity with our nation, ixigo is suspending flight and resort bookings for Turkey, Azerbaijan, and China. As a result of in the case of Bharat, we don’t assume twice. Jai Hind.”
Travomint has suspended all ticket gross sales for airways of the 2 international locations — Turkish Airways, Pegasus Airways, Corendon Airways and Azerbaijan Airways, as of final Saturday. “This resolution is ultimate and can stay unchanged no matter any future developments. Going ahead, Travomint is not going to interact in any partnerships with entities from these international locations,” mentioned a press release from the portal.
Rajiv Gosain, who heads Indian Affiliation of Tour Operators, mentioned 15-20 per cent of bookings taken by member operators for the 2 international locations have been cancelled. Delhi-based Confederation of All India Merchants (CAIT) has advocated a journey boycott of Turkey and Azerbaijan, including that it’ll coordinate with journey and tour operators, and different stakeholders on the problem.
In response to information from Turkey’s Ministry of Tradition and Tourism, 3.31 lakh Indian nationals visited Turkey in 2024, larger by nearly 21 per cent over 2023 when 2.74 lakh Indians visited Turkey. In 2022, the variety of Indian nationals who visited Turkey stood at 2.32 lakh. In reality, India was among the many prime 20 supply markets for Turkey, as per officers within the Turkish Embassy in New Delhi — and information from the primary three months of 2025 confirmed it might have crossed that mark on this yr.
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Embassy officers had mentioned they have been enhancing advertising efforts, promotional actions, and collaborations for continued momentum in tourism development, even betting on marriage ceremony tourism and the MICE (Conferences, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) sector.
As for Azerbaijan, the variety of Indians visiting the nation greater than doubled to 2.44 lakh in 2024 from 1.17 lakh in 2023, in accordance with information from Azerbaijan Tourism Board, which describes India as a “key goal market”. Information exhibits Indians are among the many prime 5 nationalities visiting Azerbaijan. In 2022, Azerbaijan had 60,731 Indian guests, a pointy spike from 4,853 in 2014.
Information from the Directorate Basic of Civil Aviation exhibits 5.05 lakh passengers flew on direct flights from India to Turkey in 2024, up nearly 15 per cent over 2023. The variety of passengers who flew direct from India to Azerbaijan shot as much as 80,567 in 2024 from 28,899 in 2023 as further flights started operations. The info consists of flyers of different nationalities as nicely.
In response to on-line visa processing agency Atyls, for summer time 2025, that they had registered an increase of first-time worldwide travellers from India gravitating in direction of locations like Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Azerbaijan, which had begun streamlined visa procedures. MakeMyTrip had slotted Turkey and Azerbaijan among the many prime 20 worldwide locations looked for the upcoming vacation season.