The State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Youth Affairs intends to focus on legislative regulation of travel agency activities during the autumn session, according to committee chairman Mikhail Degtyarev (LDPR), according to TASS.
"Serious "Work needs to be done at both the legislative and government levels to address travel agencies. Today, travel agencies are just a table, a chair, and 10,000 rubles in authorized capital. Unfortunately, agents bear no responsibility, and this is where money is often lost. [We need] either to introduce a patent system—there are different approaches—maybe licensing, maybe insurance," he said at a press conference at TASS on Wednesday.
"The agencies have fallen out of sight today, both from Rostourism, law enforcement agencies, and inspectors, and we don't yet have the legislative ability to, so to speak, bring them back into the state's sights. But we will definitely address this during the fall session," Degtyarev emphasized.
The committee head also hopes to consider a bill requiring tour operators to confirm payment to hotels for tourist accommodation during the next session. "We probably won't have time to do it during the spring session, but we'll definitely do it during the fall session," the deputy assured.
This refers to an initiative introduced in the State Duma in early July that proposes amendments to the law "On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activity in the Russian Federation." According to the draft, tour operators will be required to provide clients with documents confirming "direct payment by the tour operator for a hotel or other accommodation," and in the case of payment in installments, documents confirming partial payment. It stipulates that these documents must be provided no later than 24 hours after the client transfers funds. Violations of this law will result in a fine of 10% per month based on the amount transferred as payment for the hotel, and tourists will have the right to request contract termination and a refund.
Source: trn-news.ru