BENGALURU: Indians are cancelling holidays in popular resorts in Turkiye and Azerbaijan after the two countries supported Pakistan during the recent conflict, two booking firms said.
Turkiye and Azerbaijan, popular budget holiday destinations for Indians, issued statements backing Islamabad after India’s air strikes last week. “Bookings for Azerbaijan and Turkiye decreasing by 60 per cent (over the last week) while cancellations have surged by 250pc during the same period,” a spokesperson for MakeMyTrip said.
EaseMyTrip’s Chief Executive Officer, Rikant Pittie, said the platform had seen a 22pc rise in cancellations for Turkiye and 30pc for Azerbaijan “due to recent geopolitical tensions”.
Travellers had switched to Georgia, Serbia, Greece, Thailand and Vietnam, he added. Another ticketing platform, ixigo, earlier said in a post on X that it would be suspending flight and hotel bookings for Turkiye, Azerbaijan and China.
EaseMyTrip’s founder and chairman Nishant Pitti said in a post on X that 287,000 Indians visited Turkiye last year and 243,000 visited Azerbaijan. “When these nations openly support Pakistan, should we fuel their tourism and their economies?” Pitti said.
Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2025
