Indian tourist traffic to Turkey, Azerbaijan plunges after Operation Sindoor as travellers cancel trips amid geopolitical tensions. Photo: X.
Indian tourist traffic to Turkey and Azerbaijan has witnessed a steep fall in the weeks and months following Operation Sindoor and the hostilities in May, according to an Indian Express report.
The decline came after both Turkey and Azerbaijan publicly backed Pakistan during India’s Operation Sindoor in which India army hit key air based and terrorist infrastructure in the neighboring country. In May, Azerbaijan supported Pakistan’s stance, while Turkey supported Islamabad’s demand for an international investigation into the Pahalgam attack. Turkey has also previously supplied weapons to Pakistan.
According to the latest data cited in an Indian Express report, Azerbaijan recorded a 56% drop in visitors from India between May and August, while Turkey saw a 33.3% decline during the same period.
Data from the Azerbaijan Tourism Board showed that Indian visitor numbers had grown by 33% year-on-year between January and April. However, in the four months that followed, the numbers fell sharply by nearly 56%, the report said.
Both Turkey and Azerbaijan had been increasingly popular among Indian travellers in recent years. Factors such as the availability of direct flights and Istanbul’s position as a major international transit hub contributed to this growth. Despite broader geopolitical tensions in West Asia, tourism from India to these destinations had remained stable until May this year.
Soon after the ceasefire with Islamabad and calls to boycott Turkey and Azerbaijan, travel booking platforms reported a sharp decline in reservations and a surge in cancellations.
“Bookings for Azerbaijan and Turkey decreasing by 60% (over the last week) while cancellations have surged by 250% during the same period,” a MakeMyTrip spokesperson told Reuters in May.
EaseMyTrip CEO Rikant Pittie told Indian Express that Indian travellers were shifting plans to alternative destinations such as Georgia, Serbia, Greece, Thailand and Vietnam. “EaseMyTrip had seen a 22% rise in cancellations for Turkey and 30% for Azerbaijan due to recent geopolitical tensions,” he added.
Meanwhile, visa processing platform Atlys also reported a 42% drop in visa applications to Turkey and Azerbaijan.
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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