Major European travel booking platforms including GetYourGuide and Viator are actively selling and profiting from tours to Nagorno-Karabakh, a region from which over 100,000 ethnic Armenians were forcibly displaced just months ago, according to investigative reporting by CivilNet.
The tours, marketed to international travelers, offer visits to recently conquered territories including the historic city of Stepanakert, now renamed Khankendi by Azerbaijan. The packages present the region as an exotic destination without acknowledging the ethnic cleansing that preceded their availability. Tour descriptions emphasize cultural heritage sites and natural beauty while omitting the September 2023 Azerbaijani military operation that ended decades of Armenian control and triggered a mass exodus.
GetYourGuide, valued at over $2 billion and backed by major venture capital, lists multiple excursions departing from Baku to the disputed territory. The platform's standard commission structure means it earns revenue from each booking, creating a direct profit stream from what human rights organizations have characterized as conquest tourism. Viator, owned by travel giant Tripadvisor, similarly features Karabakh itineraries alongside conventional Azerbaijan tour packages.
The normalization of tourism to ethnically cleansed territories raises uncomfortable parallels to historical cases of conquest tourism. Following Azerbaijan's September 2023 offensive, approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians fled to Armenia within days, effectively ending Armenian presence in a region they had inhabited for centuries. The United Nations and international human rights groups documented the rapid depopulation, which Armenia characterized as ethnic cleansing.
None of the tour operators or booking platforms contacted by investigators disclosed this recent history to prospective customers. The marketing materials instead emphasize Azerbaijan's "" narrative, presenting the 2020 and 2023 military operations as rightful restoration of sovereign land. Tour guides, according to booking descriptions, focus on Azerbaijani cultural claims to the region and recent reconstruction efforts.

