EaseMyTrip CEO vs Cong’s Kerala unit over ‘resumption’ of bookings to Maldives: ‘We took immediate action’.

“The money will come and go. But our nationalistic approach will never change,” Nitshant Pitti wrote on X. EaseMyTrip CEO Nishant Pitti has hit back at the Congress party’s Kerala unit after the grand old party called out the online travel portal for “quietly resuming bookings to Maldives.” Pitti, who also co-founded the company, remarked that the firm’s “nationalistic approach will never change.” He, however, acknowledged that a few bookings to the Indian Ocean archipelago were made through its platform in recent days. “Dear @INCIndia, thank you for your concern. @EaseMyTrip has halted Maldives bookings from January 8th until today. Some bookings did occur between May 16th-26th, but we took immediate action and got them removed,” he said on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.“Why focus only on us? Are you not aware of other Chinese-owned travel portals that never stopped promoting Maldives in the first place? We have been serving for the last 16 years without any foreign investment,” he added. Pitti further asserted that EaseMyTrip “was here for the long haul” and that “it’s not easy for us to go.”EaseMyTrip’s decision in January to suspend bookings to the Maldives had come days after a massive diplomatic row erupted over “offensive” social media posts by three Maldivian deputy ministers – they were subsequently suspended – in wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep. The relationship between the two countries has been at an all-time low under the presidency of Mohamed Muizzu, the incumbent Maldivian President who is widely seen as a “pro-China” figure in New Delhi. EaseMyTrip’s “boycott” of the Maldives, made in solidarity with the Indian government and Prime Minister Modi, impacted 240,000 annual bookings through its platform. However, in the fiscal year 2024, the company posted its highest-ever EBITDA, amounting to ₹2282 million, a 19% year-on-year growth.