Ankit Rastogi, a veteran travel consultant, says Indians are unwilling to put their money into the pockets of their enemy nations. His views:
Operation Sindoor has filled every Indian with national pride. It has also revealed to the nation about its friends and enemies on the global map. Ever since it appeared in the media that Turkey was the top supplier and supporter of the drones being used to shell Indian territories (followed by a #boycottturkey trend on social media), Indians responded in kind.
I was swarmed with calls for cancellations of prior bookings to popular destinations in Turkey like Istanbul and Antalya. Ditto for Azerbaijan which had extended unconditional support to Pakistan! A number of bookings to Baku Old City in Azerbaijan were cancelled. Some of these cancellations had their visas cleared but irrespective of the deductions incurred in cancellations, there were no complaints or requests for full reimbursements, or pressure on us to bear the losses.
With the advent of social media in the past couple of decades, Turkey and Azerbaijan had become favourites for Indians travellers owing to their history, architecture and comparatively accessible travel options. But a shift in the geopolitical winds in the wake of Operation Sindoor has hurt the Indians sentiments towards these two countries. The general mood is: why Indian travellers should money and support the travel economy of countries that openly stand with adversaries of the nation.
Of late, Indian travellers wanted something new, beyond usual preferred destinations ike Thailand and Singapore. It was there that countries like Azerbaijan offered a European feel at a fraction of price. But that interest has disappeared and people are now looking for new options, as they do not want to put their money where their enemies are.
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For the records, Turkey hosted about 2.7 lakh Indian tourists last year and it was expected to be cross over 3.5 Lakh this year with a 20.7 per cent -on year jump. Indians gave a whopping ₹4,000-crore business to Turkey and Azerbaijan through tourism but post Operation Sindoor, the bookings for the dual destinations dropped by 60 per cent; the cancellations jumped by 250 per cent in just a week.
Some new and equally popular destinations (with a nominal raise in budget) are now being suggested by tour operators. Indian tourists once planning to visit Turkey (costing ₹3-4 lakhs a week) are now being suggested / relocated to Russia, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, etc and budget travellers to Azerbaijan are being convinced to redirect their holiday packages to Vietnam, Singapore, Bali, or Dubai.
I will end by mentioning that the tourism idustry, as trade partners and contributors to the prosperity of India, stand in solidarity with our nation and out of deep respect to our armed forces and our soldiers, we strongly support this sentiment. We shall continue to to advise our patrons against all non-essential travel to Turkey and Azerbaijan. We have also discontinued all our offers and promotions on all our platforms to discourage tourism to these two destinations. There is no monetary benefit that comes before our love for motherland and our national interests.
As told to Rajat Rai