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Egyptian autumn to reduce number of Russia's tour operators

Financial losses caused by egyptian crisis to the travel industry come as a major blow to Russian travel companies
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

YEKATERINBURG, August 19 (Itar-Tass) - Russian tour operators have sustained dozens of millions of rouble losses due to the turmoil in Egypt, vice-president of the Ural Association of Travel Industry Sergei Buzko told Itar-Tass.

“The sum of the losses is much more and the ‘Egyptian autumn’ will reduce the number of tour operators,” Buzko said.

“Some of them withdraw into the shadows and someone can freeze its activity. Now it is not easy for tour operators to return tourists’ money. It is necessary to reach agreement with a partner, who is staying the country where a tourist has a rest, to solve the problem with accommodation and transfer. It is rather difficult to do this for objective and subjective reasons,” he said.

“Most money should be paid airline companies as a forfeit. For example, a tourist decided to postpone the tour. A partner tells a tour operator about it. Let’s admit him to agree with a hotelkeeper that the payment will be made later. Maybe, it will be possible to agree with a company, which deals with a transfer. But what should be done with an airline company? A flight can’t be cancelled because 10 people postpone it. Thus, a tour operator should pay a forfeit from 7 to 15 percent. An airline company will not return money for a ticket. This sum is rather considerable,” Buzko said.

The Ural Association of Travel Industry reported that people refused to fly to Egypt and choose tours to Turkey or Spain for the end of September or the beginning of October.