 "Indian globe trotters 'punish' Pakistan-backers Azerbaijan, Turkey: May-August tourism data")
Turkey and Azerbaijan, the two nations that backed Pakistan during its military confrontation with India after the Pahalgam terror attack, have witnessed a sharp decline in the Indian tourist traffic after Operation Sindoor. According to a report by The Indian Express, between the two nations, Azerbaijan have been hit the worst.
As per the data shared by the Indian news outlet, Baku saw a whopping 56 per cent decline in Indian tourists during the May-August period, while Turkey registered a 33.3 per cent drop. It is pertient to note that both in Turkey and Azerbaijan, tourism remains a key component of the economy.
In the past, the two places gained significant popularity as tourism destinations for Indians, and the number of Indian travellers visiting the two countries had grown considerably in recent years, with direct flight connections also seeing a rise.
However, the countries’ backing of Pakistan during the 4-day military confrontation in May led to a massive backlash in India, with growing calls to boycott these two nations. According to The Indian Express, in May itself, travel booking portals began reporting a notable drop in bookings for these countries, and a jump in cancellations of bookings already in place.
Some travel service providers also discouraged Indians.
Additionally, travel service providers like Ixigo and Cox & Kings also stopped offering flight and hotel bookings for Turkey and Azerbaijan. While some outrightly discouraged Indians from travelling to these nations. Some examples shared by The Indian Express were those of MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip. The two online travel booking sites advised against non-essential travel to Turkey and Azerbaijan after Operation Sindoor.
“Indian travellers have expressed strong sentiments over the past week, with bookings for Azerbaijan and Turkey decreasing by 60 per cent, while cancellations have surged by 250 per cent during the same period. In solidarity with our nation and out of deep respect for our armed forces, we strongly support this sentiment and advise all 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,” MakeMyTrip had said in a statement on May 14.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsLatest data from the Azerbaijan Tourism Board stated that while the number of visitors from India had grown 33 per cent year-on-year in January-April, it plummeted almost 56 per cent year-on-year in the following four months. In the May-August period, the number of visitors to Azerbaijan from India dropped to around 44,000 from nearly a lakh in the corresponding four months of 2024.
Even before Operation Sindoor, in the first four months of this year, Azerbaijan had around 81,000 visitors from India, notably higher than nearly 61,000 in the year-ago period. The Azerbaijan Tourism Board had described India as a “key target market for the tourism sector in Azerbaijan”, and India was also among its top five tourism source markets, The Indian Express reported. However, in August, India dropped to 11th place in terms of the number of visitors to Azerbaijan.
What about Turkey
The data from Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, obtained by The Indian Express, showed that the number of Indians travelling to Turkey in the May-August period fell by a third to around 90,400 from nearly 1.36 lakh in the corresponding four months of last year.
The number of Indians travelling to Turkey in the May-August period fell by a third to around 90,400 from nearly 1.36 lakh in the corresponding four months of last year. In the first four months of the year 2025, around 83,300 Indians visited Turkey, only slightly lower than the year-ago period’s 84,500 visitors.
From January to August, the number of Indian nationals who travelled to Turkey fell 21 per cent year-on-year to 1.74 lakh. In contrast to this, in the same period last year, the number of Indian visitors to Turkey had jumped 28.5 per cent from January-August 2023 levels. Overall, it is safe to say that the geopolitical alignment of the two nations did impact the number of Indians travelling there.
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