The news of Alexander Osauenko's possible resignation as head of Tourpomoshch sparked heated discussions among business representatives. As it turns out, many questions have accumulated regarding the association's work. However, as observers emphasize, any complaints from agents or The image of tour operators and the leadership of the tourism industry, represented by the Ministry of Economic Development and Rostourism, is being damaged by the "Turpomoshch" initiative.
"We surveyed travel companies and concluded that the idea of replacing management could have been prompted by a critical mass of discontent," says Alexander Bayborodin, head of the firm "Bayborodin & Partners," which specializes in tourism law.
According to him, one of the main problems, which has been repeatedly highlighted by market representatives, is the fact that, for some reason, the market has formed the impression that "Turpomoshch", to put it mildly, does not like to make payments and does so extremely reluctantly.
"There have been some fairly successful cases of evacuating tourists. However, in a number of cases, evacuation decisions were indeed made manually, 'administratively,' without any funds being spent," said Alexander Bayborodin.
Also, according to the lawyer, the issue of transparency in the mechanism for calculating interest for tour operators' personal liability funds has recently been increasingly discussed behind the scenes.
Third, it's important to remember that the association's image in the travel agency market has been severely damaged by the saga surrounding the travel agency registry. "The law doesn't explicitly stipulate that the registry is a paid service. The payment mechanism itself was prescribed in a bylaw, and it was extremely inappropriate—either the tour operator, the chain, or the agent themselves could pay. As a result, Turpomoshch offered to pay each of these groups in turn, unfortunately creating enemies and generating a surge in complaints," the expert concluded.
As a reminder, Osauenko's possible resignation was announced last week. According to a TRN source within Rostourism, Mr. Osauenko's work has recently raised numerous questions from both the relevant agency and the Ministry of Economic Development, as well as representatives of the tourism industry. An extraordinary meeting of the Supervisory Board to discuss this matter will be held on Monday, July 15.
Source: trn-news.ru