Indian traveller numbers to Turkey fall as ties sour after Operation Sindoor
Operation Sindoor
. Data from the Turkish tourism ministry shows Indian tourists dropped by 37% this June to 24,250 from 38,307 in the same month last year.
And the fall in May 2025 over the same month previous year was 24%.
In Jan-June 2025, about 1.4 lakh Indian tourists visited Turkey, down 15% from 1.6 lakh in the same period last year.
The fall comes after constant year-on-year increase in the range of 5%-7% in the immediately preceding months of Dec 2024 to Feb 2025. On an overall basis, Indian tourists accounted for a miniscule — less than 1% — of all international arrivals in Turkey.
However, big banner Bollywood movies being shot there and post Covid there was a constant increase in the numbers.
But with Pakistan firing Turkey-made drones in the border areas of India during Operation Sindoor and President Erdogan's open support to Pakistan changed things quickly. A number of big tour operators in India had stopped selling packages to Turkey and Azerbaijan, keeping in mind the public sentiment here.
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'As a destination, Turkey has fallen off the bucket list of Indian travellers. Immediately after Operation Sindoor we had seen a fall in demand for travel by Turkish Airlines too. Now that has picked up a bit as via Istanbul the airline connects to about 240 destinations. But the trend of people taking a stopover in Istanbul while transiting between India and the rest of the world on Turkish Airlines has taken a hit along with fewer Indian travellers going to the country,' said a leading Delhi-based travel agent.
Azerbaijan has also fallen from the good books of Indian travellers. 'We have seen Georgia pick up instead,' said a tour operator. Something similar may happen with Turkey next year when direct flights begin between India and Greece. 'We have seen an increase in inquiries for Greece. But going there means taking a one-stop flight in the absence of nonstops from India. That will change next year,' said an official of a big online tour operator.
The current bilaterals allow a daily flight between Istanbul and Delhi by an Indian carrier (IndiGo operates the same) & Turkish Airlines (TA) each. And as many flights between Istanbul and Mumbai. Seeking more traffic from India, Turkey had for past few years been unsuccessfully seeking an upward revision of the bilaterals.
The relations nosedived after Operation Sindoor with India. In mid-May, India revoked security clearance to Turkey's Celebi Airport Services India Pvt Ltd 'in the interest of national security.' The company was asked to stop its operations at the nine Indian airports it was present in. These included Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Goa, Cochin and Kannur.
Govt also asked IndiGo to wind up its wet lease of two Turkish Airlines' wide body Boeing 777s by Aug 31. IndiGo had sought their continued use till Nov 30, 2025.
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