Federal Media Overview

On September 24, the State Duma held a working meeting of the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Physical Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs Sergey Krivonosov with the most influential representatives of the tourism business – tour operators Pegas Touristik, TUI and Vipservice. According to experts, the effective laws ensure proper protection of the tourists' interests but need further refinement. On the one hand, tourists are protected from bankruptcy of a tour operator but, on the other hand, they are exposed to scammers. Representatives of the tourism community expressed their hope that the introduction of the Electronic Voucher will help whitewash the market. Based on the meeting, Sergey Krivonosov suggested that a working group should be established on the platform of the State Duma subcommittee to analyse the Electronic Voucher system and subsequent legislative developments. The deputy also promised to consider as a legislative initiative the issue of reducing the burden on tour operators on contributions to the personal liability fund. (For more details, see http://www.krivonosov.ru/news/5091/)

Air Gate of the Northern Capital LLC submitted for consideration to the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation a list of 33 countries where foreign airlines can operate flights from the Pulkovo airport. According to the data provided by the airport, such leading European low-cost airlines as Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizz Air have already announced their willingness to perform flights from St. Petersburg, in case if the Seventh Freedom of the Air is introduced. Dmitry Gorin believes that the appearance of low-cost airlines would not only lead to increased competition and a more balanced tariff policy of carriers but would also create more travel opportunities for residents of the Northwestern Federal District, who in this case would be more inclined to transfer in St. Petersburg than in Moscow. In the future, it is possible that if the prices are attractive, residents of the Moscow metropolitan area will also prefer to take flights to Europe from St. Petersburg. “In case of an electronic visa, St. Petersburg will be popular with young travelers who are on a budget. The number of business travelers will also increase. Let's not forget that St. Petersburg will host Euro 2020 games, and in 2021, the Champions League final. All this increases interest in this Russian city, especially since Europeans are used to low-cost airlines. So all this would also benefit the incoming tourism to St. Petersburg,” he notes. (For more details, see https://www.atorus.ru/ru/news/press-centre/new/48719.html)

At Russia 24, Dmitry Gorin, as an adviser to the head of the Federal Tourism Agency, spoke on the organisation of travel to Chernobyl. “This topic is interesting for foreign tourists who are looking for special tourist routes. By the way, there are a lot of such routes around the globe. And in this situation we cannot talk about some huge tourist traffic. But since these special facilities are now open, of course, such travels are in demand, and a number of Ukrainian tour operators offer this kind of trips. It is premature to talk about any tourist flow from Russia or Belarus, because the offer as such has appeared quite recently. Demand is crucial but tourists lack such demand.” (For more details, see https://www.ontvtime.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view_record&id=1606&start_record=2019-09-27-20-00&fbclid=IwAR0zT0puTVHMJw1TU4YnVuIZC4knsykxgOWT1QBk9NOPNy3JK7X3BysIjQs from 20:40)