Deputies proposed introducing a bill to the State Duma requiring tour operators to enter travel voucher information into a unified electronic travel voucher database. The relevant documents have been published in the State Duma's electronic database.
"The draft federal law proposes to amend Federal Law No. 132-FE of November 24, 1996, 'On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activity in the Russian Federation' (hereinafter referred to as the Law), with amendments aimed at improving state regulation of tourism activity and related to the need to ensure the effective functioning of the system," the document states.
If this bill is adopted, tour operators and travel agents may be required to generate electronic travel vouchers and then post the information in the "Electronic Travel Voucher" system. If companies fail to do so, they will be excluded from the federal register.
The draft federal law proposes:
- oblige tour operators and travel agents to create electronic travel vouchers and post information about them in the system;
- supplement the Law with such a basis for excluding information about a tour operator from the unified federal register of tour operators as a violation by a tour operator of the prohibition on the sale of a tourist product without creating an electronic voucher and posting information about it in the system;
- establish the obligation of the travel agent (in the event that the tour operator has granted the travel agent, who, on behalf of the tour operator, sells a tourist product created by the tour operator, the right to enter into the unified information system of electronic vouchers the information necessary for the creation of electronic vouchers) to issue a certified extract from the system containing the terms of the relevant agreement on the sale of the tourist product;
- approve the collection of a fee by the system operator from the tour operator for the placement of an electronic voucher in the system, in order to ensure the functioning of the system and its development (determined by the authorized federal executive body), the amount and procedure for collecting which are established by the Government of the Russian Federation;
- "To provide for administrative liability for the sale of a tourist product without creating an electronic travel voucher and posting information about it in the system," the explanatory note states.
The bill also notes that the proposed changes will improve the protection of the interests of consumers of tourism services and will also contribute to improving the quality of services provided.
Source: trn-news.ru