The Federal Agency for Tourism held a meeting on protecting the rights of tourists—clients of tour operators within the Natalie Tours group of companies, Rostourism reports.
The purpose of the meeting was to obtain clarification from the management of Natalie Tours that The group of companies has taken steps to compensate for the damage suffered by tourists due to the cancellation of its tours, which it plans to do in the near future in order to completely close this issue and, based on the information received, with the participation of all interested parties, outline a plan for further action.
Natalie Tours' management provided data indicating that the total number of clients to whom the group of companies failed to fully fulfill their obligations is 30,200 people, and that the total amount of compensation paid is approximately 3.5 million rubles—slightly more than 0.2% of the total liabilities of Natalie Tours' legal entities (which amount to 1.5 billion rubles).
During the meeting, it was confirmed that the total amount of civil liability insurance for the legal entities within Natalie Tours—156 million rubles—does not correspond to the actual volume of their activities (the insurance covers slightly more than 101 TP3T of the obligations assumed by these companies), as well as the insufficient completeness of the documentary accounting of Natalie Tours' operations carried out within the framework of providing tourism services.
As a way out of the current situation, the management of the Natalie Tours group of companies indicated attracting an investor and covering the debt with their funds.
"We see that, more than two months after the tours were cancelled, Natalie Tours' management has taken no effective measures to compensate clients for their losses. The legal entities within the group are effectively no longer engaged in tour operator activities and, accordingly, have no revenue. Of their approximately 300 employees, no more than 101,000 remain. According to Natalie Tours, the only realistic option for repaying its client obligations is currently attracting additional investment. Rostourism, for its part, is ready to provide comprehensive assistance in Natalie Tours' negotiations with potential investors. Moreover, we believe this must be accomplished as quickly as possible," says Natalie Tours. Head of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov.
As noted in the media, the head of Natalie Tours stated, that he needs 700-800 million rubles to resume operations.
Source: trn-news.ru