Izvestia: more than 60% of Russian tour operators are at risk of bankruptcy due to the pandemic tours. Izvestia writes about this with reference to a letter from industry representatives to the government.
Tour operators indicated that most destinations are still closed to Russian tourists: China, Southeast Asia, the Far East and almost all of Europe. This circumstance did not allow tour operators to fulfill their obligations to tourists taken in 2020 in 2021.
Business asks to extend the deferral of the obligation to return funds to customers for disrupted tours. Otherwise, the market will face a wave of bankruptcies – companies do not have enough free funds, since they transferred them to foreign partners who have already put them into circulation.
Previously, such a deferral was adopted until December 31, 2021. Now tour operators' debts to clients amount to 25 billion rubles, and insurance funds have accumulated only for seven billion. In the event of bankruptcy of the tour operator, all the funds advanced by it will remain in the income of the foreign partner. Neither the Russian operator nor our tourists will receive money back.
In October, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) offered Russians to replace their vacation in European countries closed for international tourism due to the pandemic with a trip to Istanbul. According to experts, the Turkish city can become an alternative to sightseeing tours to Europe. According to preliminary estimates, in the period from September to December 2021, about 230-240 thousand Russian citizens will be able to fly to Istanbul.
In August, ATOR was offered to restore international tourism, without waiting for the end of the pandemic. According to the association, this should be helped by the development of unified rules of entry for unvaccinated and ill tourists, the introduction of Safe Travel standards, as well as the mutual recognition of all vaccines against coronavirus.