Indian Travel Platforms Clash Over Turkey and Azerbaijan Travel Amid Boycott Calls

India-Pakistan news: India's travel platforms have entered disputes following their decision to

stop bookings for Turkey and Azerbaijan because of the latter countries' lack of support for

India-Pak border tensions.

Flight booking platforms announce that customers can find flight options on competing apps.

Travelers can book flights to Istanbul and Baku through MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip platforms.

Flipkart Travel and Cleartrip decided to halt all flight, hotel, and holiday bookings to Turkey

boycott as per their recent statement which asserts their commitment to India's national interest

sovereignty. "Our stand is clear. India Comes First!"

MakeMyTrip declared their support for national solidarity and respect for armed forces by

advising against all non-essential travel to Turkey-Azerbaijan row on May 14. All promotional

offers and deals on our platform have been terminated to reduce tourism to both destinations.

EaseMyTrip published on social media the same day they advised against travel to Turkey and

Azerbaijan boycott without suspending bookings because Istanbul is a layover point for some

European flights to warn that Indian defence personnel data could not be protected due to

Chinese investment in Indian travel platforms.

Nishant Pitti the founder and chairman of EaseMyTrip explained on X that Indian Armed

Forces use a Chinese-majority-owned platform to purchase discounted flights by entering

Defence ID along with route and date information. Our adversaries can determine where our

military aircraft are operating because of this information sharing.

He provided screenshots showing how MakeMyTrip offers discounts on their platform for

defense personnel through OTA using code MMTDefence with savings like Rs 200.

Chinese online travel giant Ctrip became an early investor in MakeMyTrip and by 2019

increased its ownership stake in the company to 49 percent.

As Azerbaijan and Turkey become travel battlegrounds in India the tourism board from Turkey's

capital has called on Indians to keep visiting their country.