Визы, РСТ, Россия, Заграница, Транспорт, Волонтерство, Туризм и закон, RTN Tech, Туристам,
Главные новости

Egypt unrest: Russians don’t want to leave

08:07, 7 февраля 2011

Less than 3% of Russian tourists, spending their vacation on the resorts of Egypt expressed their wish to interrupt vacation and leave the country. These are the results of the survey done for Transaero airlines by the incoming travel agents. None of the tourists were ready to interrupt their vacation on their own.

Rostourism sent its “agents” to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh in order to check on the situation on the spot. Interdepartmental emergency operations center consultations were held on Saturday and Sunday. Representatives of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, Rostourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, airlines and touroperators tried to work out how to deal with this travel destination. Send the tourists or not? Evacuate the tourists or not? On one side the resorts are quiet and safe, that was confirmed by the “agents” of Rostourism. On the other, nobody knows how the situation would unfold. Neither MFA, nor Ministry of Sport and Tourism, nor Rostourism can impose a ban on tourism visits to Egypt.

Finally it was decided that there will be no urgent evacuation. On Saturday Rostourism placed on its web-site the Order which recommends travel agencies and touroperators “to freeze sending the Russian tourists to Egypt as of January 29, 2011 in existence of the security and safety danger (till the situation stabilizes)”.

According to the tourists, staying at the moment on the Egyptian resorts, the situation from the country seems much quieter than from Russia. Even amid the background of the impact that was created by the mass media last weekend tourists still took flights to Egypt. Of course the number of tourists is much smaller than it was planned, the flight occupancy rate is around 50 – 70%, but still tourists are going to Egypt. Some of the tourists canceled the trips right in the airport. The reason was unprecedented, Sheremetyevo broadcasted the recommendations of MFA to refrain from visiting Egypt at the moment. Today other Moscow airports might use the same practice of communication with potential tourists.

There were no tourists willing to leave Egyptian resorts ahead of departure schedule till yesterday. On the contrary according to the inquiries addressed to the press service of the Russian Union of Travel Trade many tourists were concerned with the issue if they would be forced to leave Egypt. They recollected the situation with Tunisia that Russians did not want to depart. And those who said that are ready to interrupt their vacation resulted from the surveys done by the local incoming travel companies.

Yesterday aircompany Transaero asked their partners, “Tez Tour”, “Coral Travel”, “Intourist” and “Natali Tours” to identify those tourists that were willing to leave the resorts before planned departure date in order to coordinate the necessary number of flights.  The survey indicated that there are not many of those. Only 45 tourists from 1500 of “Natali Tours” wanted to leave. “Coral Travel” staff managed to reach 3200 of 6000 tourists and only 70 of those were ready to return home, but mentioned that it should not be organized for tomorrow.

Russian Union of Travel Trade recommends  the tourists that decided to cancel their trips to Egypt to keep the right of getting the services according to the contract signed with the travel company in the future. That means that the tourist should not annul the contract but find a compromise with the agency, either change the dates or the destination. RST asks the tourists to consider the fact that Egypt is the most popular winter destination on the Russian travel market, the number of sold packages is enormous and it’s absolutely not possible to reimburse all canceled trips at the same time as touroperators already transferred the money to their Egyptian partners and airlines.

RST encourages the tourists to accept the fact that if a client insists on the immediate reimbursement of the costs of the package the touroperator is forced to apply Paragraph 14 of the law “Principles of the touristic operations” that says that both parties can terminate the  contract on tourist services sales in court. Thus the best way is to find a joint pre-trial solution. Touroperators as well as tourists cannot be blamed for what is happening in Egypt at the moment.

Обсудить в telegram

вам может быть интересно