Travel booking center RossTour announced the cessation of its tour operator operations. The company may completely cease operations within a week, Interfax reports.
The company "RossTour", through which travel agencies purchased for their RossTour, which purchased travel packages from other tour operators, notified Rostourism and its partners that it would cease operating as a tour operator effective October 15. The booking center's announcement stated that tourists who booked and paid for the tour product are insured for 50 million rubles and are entitled to insurance compensation. Tourism experts previously stated that RossTour could completely exit the market within a week, not only as a tour operator but also as a travel agent.
The company's attempts to find partners to help resolve the disastrous situation were, unfortunately, unsuccessful. Furthermore, the deal with the "Last-Minute Travel Shop" chain, which refused to invest its own funds to support RossTour's business, was met with hostility by the agencies themselves.
As a reminder, in early October, three major tour operators suspended cooperation with RossTour: Pegas Touristik, Coral Travel, and Sunmar. Intourist later joined the list. The reason was the failure to meet deadlines for RossTour clients' travel packages. The exact number of tourists affected by this situation remains unknown. Company CEO Alexander Nedopolz promised to provide information by October 19. According to the Russian Union of Travel Industry, the exact figure could be around 10,000, and the total debt to operators could exceed 200 million rubles.
Source: news.turizm.ru