May and June are the months that witness the peak inflow of Indian tourists to Turkey. However, in ‘Post Operation’, the trend is not the same. Turkey has witnessed a drastic fall in the arrival of Indian tourists to the country. As per the official sources, 24,250 Indian tourists visited the country in June. This is a drastic decline compared to the previous year, when 38,307 Indians visited Turkey in June. In May 2024, 31,659 Indians visited Turkey, which is also far less compared to 41,554 Indians who visited Turkey in May 2024. This sharp 37% drop in the Indian tourists count visiting the country is an impact of Turkey’s support to Pakistan during ‘Operation Sindoor’.
“The impact is slow but surely beginning to show. May and June are peak tourism months for Indians going on vacation. The 2025 figures are the worst as the boycott impact has become visible. Indian tourists usually book their vacation well in advance, so the real impact of the drop in tourism is being seen in June, a senior government official said, while speaking about Indians boycotting Turkey as the latter supported Pakistan publicly during ‘Operation Sindoor’.
Turkey’s Military and Diplomatic Support to Pakistan
Pakistan attacked Indian military and civilian spaces using nearly 300-400 Turkish-made drones during ‘Operation Sindoor’. The debris recovered by India revealed that ‘Songar Asis Guard’, drones that originated in Turkey, were used by Pakistan during the conflict to attack India. In fact, these are the maiden indigenously developed armed drones by Turkey used by the country’s armed forces.
Turkey also backed Pakistan diplomatically in multilateral forums such as the United Nations (UNO) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The country issued statements in favour of Pakistan and didn’t support India’s operation, even in the United Nations General Assembly debate. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated this fact during the debate in Parliament on ‘Operation Sindoor’. PM Modi said that in the UN General Assembly, more than 190 countries supported India in its fight against terrorism, and only three countries didn’t back India, including Turkey, despite terrorism being a global threat and not just confined to any two countries.
Infact, India was one of the maiden countries to aid Turkey under ‘Operation Dost’, when the latter was hit by a destructive earthquake in 2023. India had extended medical aid, supplied essentials and helped in intense rescue operations. However, in the latest conflict that India faced, Turkey backed Pakistan. As a result of Turkey’s open and unequivocal support to Pakistan both in terms of arms supply and diplomatic backing, Indians boycotted the vacation to Turkey and the tourist count to the country reduced drastically. Web portals such as MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip voiced out that they would not support and promote packages to Turkey. Anti-Turkey slogans were circulated widely on Indian social media platforms. The repercussions of which are being witnessed lately, due to a severe crash in the Indian tourists to Turkey.
The move by Indians, indeed, severely burdens Turkey’s economy as the country is already suffering from a massive economic crisis due to low productivity, high-level inflation(annual inflation rate is around 35%), currency volatility, depleting foreign exchange reserves, spiking public debt & fiscal deficit and stagnant growth.
