Indian tourists cancel trip en masse; Turkey, Azerbaijan suffer Rs 3000 crore loss as tourism plummets

NEW DELHI: Turkey and Azerbaijan, the newfound paradise for Indian tourists will go through some tough times now. Swathes of Indian tourists have reconsidered their decision to visit the scenic locations, minding the India-Pakistan escalation.

Online travel platform EasyMyTrip announced suspending all flight and hotel bookings to Turkey and Azerbaijan after the two countries declared support for Pakistan in the ongoing conflict. Later, the company's co-founder Prashant Pitti revealed to the national media that Indians are cancelling trips to the two countries in large numbers.

22 per cent of those who booked trips to Turkey and 30 per cent of those who booked to Azerbaijan cancelled their trips. Last year, 3.8 lakh Indians travelled to these two countries.

Assuming Rs 70,000 per traveller, Indians in recent times have spent Rs 3,000 crore in these countries. As per social media glib talks, these sums of money from Indian tourists are invariably been used by these countries to provide arms and weapons for a rogue nation like Pakistan. Prashant Pitti beseeched people to take a strong stand against countries that provide weapons to Pakistan.

Following the Pahalgam terror attack, diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated and the two countries nearly experienced a war-like situation. Meanwhile, Turkey came forward publicly to support Pakistan. Most of the drones and weapons used by Pakistan during the conflict were manufactured by Turkey.

With this, many blamed Turkey and Azerbaijan for aiding terrorism.