Another scandal has sparked up on the tourism market, as dozens of Russian tourists could not leave Croatia on Saturday evening and Sunday morning over the problems of the tourist operator Cherry Tour. The company was found to have the debts for the hosting party with the debts of the tourism operator totalling hundreds of thousands of euros.
Director of the Croatian company SOLEN Natalia Marcelli, who is one of the Cherry Tour partners, said that the debts of the tourism operator reached several hundreds of thousands of euros, and her company cannot receive Russian tourists, who bought their tours in Cherry Tour, in Croatia since September, the Novye Izvestia daily reported. The tourists, who are about to leave Croatia, had been kept at the airport for several days without providing any food or accommodation, press secretary of the Russian Union of the Tourism Industry Irina Tyurina said. Eventually some tourists had to pay for their return to Russia additionally.
Director of the company Dmitry Cherepov stated that after this blow the company will not be able to survive and will state soon about its bankruptcy, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported. “The reputation was damaged strongly, I will need another two weeks,” Cherepov said. The financial guarantees should be enough to indemnify the damages to all tourists, he said. Now along with 165 tourists staying in Croatia there is another 100 tourists, who had only bought the tours, but had not gone on vacations yet.
Cherry Tour was put on the common register of tourism operators only in February 2012, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily reported. The company was specialized in the sale of tours in Eastern Europe. The responsibility of Cherry Tour is insured in Ingosstrakh for 30 million roubles for the whole year of 2012. Cherry Tour is the second case, when Russian tourists have some problems over the tourist operator in the last week of the summer. Earlier on August 30, it was reported about financial problems in the tourist operator El-Voyage. The tourist operator failed to pay for the flights of Russian tourists from Egypt. The clients of the company, who were about to go on vacations, as well as those, who were to come back from Egypt to the homeland, were affected. Only after the negotiations involving the Russian Tourism Agency, the insurance company, the Russian Union of the Tourism Industry and the All-Russian Union of Insurance Companies the tourists were brought to the homeland. The charter flight was paid from the financial guarantees of the tourism operator.