Another tour operator has gone bankrupt. The largest bankruptcies of Russian tour operators Why do bankruptcies of travel agencies occur

The Federal Tourism Agency excluded 29 tour operators from the Russian register, among them several regional operators under the brands “Pegasus”, “T O Coral Travel Center”, “Russian Express”, “Natalie Tours” and others. This does not mean that all “Coral Travel” and “Natalie Tours” have stopped working - only some.

If you have a voucher and an agreement with a tour operator, check the tour operator’s legal entity with the registry. If it is not on the registry, call the travel agency and ask how they are doing.

Don't panic, everyone will fly away ✈️

Excluded companies will no longer operate in the outbound tourism industry. However, they did not close or go bankrupt, but continue to fulfill their obligations to tourists.

Why were they expelled?

In 2017, all tour operators must create personal liability funds, which will act as additional insurance for tourists. If a tour operator goes bankrupt or suspends operations, tourists will not suffer.

The size of the fund depends on the size of the tour operator, its maximum is 7% of the annual turnover. Until January 31, all operators had to make a minimum entry fee of 100 thousand rubles. Those who did not pay were excluded from the register.

What should I do if my tour operator is not on the register?

First, make sure that the operator is really not in the registry. The fact is that many large companies create several legal entities under one brand. Therefore, carefully check the name of the operator in your contract with the one written on the Rostourism website.

Even if your tour operator is indeed excluded, do not rush to panic. Contact the agency where you purchased your trip. Your agent should check with the tour operator for details. If the holiday does not take place, the tour operator must compensate for the damage.

What and when should I do to get my money back?

If you are sure that your tour operator will not be able to send you on vacation, do not wait for the start date of the trip, but immediately demand compensation for damages.

First, write a written request to the tour operator. In the request, indicate your personal data, contract details, dates and other details of the failed trip, and the amount of compensation.

If the tour operator refuses or cannot refund the cost of the trip, find information about financial security in the contract. You need to find out which company has insured the tour operator's liability or provided it with a bank guarantee. Please write your next request to this company.

If a bank guarantee or insurance is not enough to compensate for the damage, you can write a third demand - to the association "Tour Pomosch", which manages the tour operator's personal liability fund.

So you don't have to worry?

No need to worry. Although the personal liability fund will become fully operational only after 7 years, during the transition period tourists have triple protection: insurance or a bank guarantee, a personal liability fund and a “Tour Assistance” reserve fund.

Suspension of activities due to financial problems. Following him, the large tour operator Natalie Tours recognized the problems.

"Capital Tour"

The company has been operating on the market since 2003, selling tours to 40 tourist destinations. In November 2010, it ceased operations due to the fact that its accounts were under arrest. The claim against the operator was filed by the Moscow Credit Bank, to which Capital Tour at that time owed 45 million rubles. (the company's total debt was 1.3 billion rubles). As a result, about 8 thousand Capital Tour clients who were abroad were affected. The company's financial liability was insured by the Innogarant company in the amount of 100 million rubles. Innogarant accepted claims from more than 6 thousand victims for a total amount of 268 million rubles, but did not pay anything, since it lost its license in the fall of 2011. Capital Tour itself filed a bankruptcy petition with the Moscow Arbitration Court, which was granted in April 2011

"Lanta Tour Voyage"

Troubles for the operator, who had been working in the market for about 20 years and selling tours to Europe, Asia and the USA, began at the end of January 2012: due to the unsatisfactory financial condition of the company, Master Bank refused to lend it in the amount of 30 million rubles. As a result, about 6 thousand Lanta Tour clients were affected, 3.5 thousand of whom were abroad; the total loss of clients exceeded 194 million rubles. A criminal case was opened against the operator's managers; Prime Minister Vladimir Putin intervened in the rescue of clients: on February 1, VTB issued a five-year loan to Lanta for $7 million, which was used to return stranded tourists to Russia. The operator’s liability was insured by Ingosstrakh for the amount of 100 million rubles. In September, the court declared Lanta Tour bankrupt.

"Ascent Travel"

The company, founded in 1992 and sold to the Swiss tourism concern Hotelplan in 2007, returned to Russian owners in May 2012. In the summer of 2013, the operator, specializing in Croatia and Montenegro, first announced that it was curtailing 60% of summer programs (according to some estimates, about 16 thousand people could have been affected, of which 1.3 thousand were abroad), and in July completely stopped its activities and filed for bankruptcy. The court declared Ascent Travel bankrupt in April 2014; the total amount of debt at that time was 49 million rubles, 70% of which was debt to individuals.

The largest tour operator with headquarters in St. Petersburg has been working on the market since 1990 and was one of the founders of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR); per year, Neva served up to 700 thousand tourists, offering them up to 50 destinations around the world. On July 16, 2014, the operator announced the suspension of its activities “due to the inability to fulfill its duties to tourists and customers.” On August 4, 2014, the Investigative Committee announced that it would check the actions of Neva for fraud. At the end of November 2014, the general director of the travel agency, Maxim Pirogov, was soon sent under house arrest. The further fate of the head of Neva was not reported.

The investigation estimated the damage from fraudulent activity at 450 million rubles. In January 2015, the travel agency went bankrupt.

"Labyrinth"

A tour operator specializing in Greece announced the suspension of its activities on August 2, 2014, the day after it became known that its airline broker Ideal Tour owed Orenburg Airlines 1.5 billion rubles. Among other reasons for their collapse, the leaders of Labyrinth named the weakening purchasing power of the ruble, the negative political and economic situation, and the ban on security forces traveling abroad. Market participants immediately stated that the “Labyrinth” case was the largest in the last 20 years: 27 thousand people remained abroad at that time alone, and several tens of thousands more were waiting to leave (according to ATOR, about 20 thousand people; according to Rostourism, about 40 thousand people). The co-owner of the tour operator, Sergei Azarskov, hid abroad for some time, but was detained in Serbia, and in April 2016 he was sent to Russia. He was investigated for fraud, but the results of the investigation were not reported.

"South Cross"

"Solvex tour"

On September 8, 2014, a large tour operator from St. Petersburg, the Solvex Tour company, announced the suspension of its activities. About 9 thousand clients of the company were abroad, another 8 thousand bought tours. The travel agency's accounts payable amounted to about 325 million rubles; in October 2015, it was declared bankrupt.

The general director of Solvex Tour, Tamara Khaletskaya, is under house arrest on suspicion of fraud. In July 2016, ATOR appealed to Business Ombudsman Boris Titov with a request to intervene in the situation with the heads of several travel agencies that went bankrupt in 2014 (Khaletskaya, who was released on her own recognizance, was also mentioned in the appeal). The results of the investigation into the case were not reported.

On August 24, 2017, against the backdrop of an aggravated epidemiological situation in Turkey, the tour operator Ted Travel ceased its activities. The company attributed the difficulties to the spread of enterovirus infection and a drop in demand. However, the head of Rosturzim turned to law enforcement agencies with a request to check the company’s activities - according to him, the cause of bankruptcy was the dumping policy of Ted Travel. About 7.5 thousand of the company's clients flew abroad; another 750 people were abroad at the time of default.

On July 3, 2018, the tour operator ​DSBW Tours, which had been operating on the market since 1991 and initially specialized in bus tours, reported financial problems and suspension of activities. According to the Russian Union of Travel Industry, 1.2 thousand people may suffer from the operator’s actions. ​ “In the current realities, we can no longer fulfill our obligations to clients and to the bank. Over the past few years, we have honestly fought to preserve our business,” wrote the founder and owner of the company, Karen Goncharov, on his Facebook page.

Tourism market experts assured tourists that there is no need to fear that operators will go bankrupt in the summer of 2017. Today on the market, up to 90% of all trips are sold by top 10 companies whose financial position is assessed as reliable. Neither dumping in the Turkish direction nor multimillion-dollar claims against operators from the Transaero airline will affect the development of the situation.

During the May holidays, Turkey with flights from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and other cities was sold at very low last minute prices. As the newsletter of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia reported, it was possible to fly to Antalya from Moscow for 15 thousand rubles. And now you can buy a tour for up to 30 thousand. The market has not seen such prices for a very long time. Previously, obvious dumping on the part of operators often led to bankruptcy of companies. But this time the situation is radically different, experts assure. Tourists can rest assured that bankruptcies are not expected for major players in the market.

“In Turkey, it is Turkish operators with Turkish roots who are working in the dumping zone today. And dumping comes primarily from Turkish hotels, which want to attract more Russian tourists, so they give huge discounts,” Oleg Khiger, general director of the Vista group of companies, told NDNews.ru. – In fact, Turkey today finds itself in European isolation; there are significantly fewer tourists from Europe. And in order not to stand idle in the summer, hoteliers offered very good prices for early booking promotions even in winter. Today we can say that up to 70% of the hotel base has been sold; what is sold in May-June is the remainder. This is why prices are sometimes so low. This is not a game for the operators, they do not lose anything, so there is no need to worry about bankruptcies.”

According to the speaker, today up to 90% of all tours in Russia are sold by the ten largest federal operators. Everyone has formed personal liability funds and has insurance guarantees. These are reliable players and tourists have nothing to fear.

When asked by NDNews.ru about the claims of the bankrupt Transaero against the two largest tour operators (the company demands to recover $5.8 million from Natalie Tours, about 400 million rubles from Tez Tour - approx. NDNews.ru), Oleg Khiger also answered that disputes subjects will not affect ordinary tourists.

“As for Natalie Tours, the tour operator has created another legal entity, and all current operational activities related to the sale of tours have been removed from the old legal entity. And the lawsuit was filed specifically against the old legal entity. There is a similar lawsuit regarding Tez Tour. But at the same time, operators do not leave the legal field. The brand continues to live, controversial issues are resolved with the old legal entity. Moreover, there are no bankruptcy claims at the moment. Therefore, I think there is no need to be afraid,” the expert commented.

Such problems led to the creation of the non-profit organization Tourpomosch, which unites tour operators in the field of outbound tourism. Membership in the organization requires payment of an annual fee, the amount of which cannot be less than 100 thousand rubles. (Article 11.4 of the Law). Is there insurance against bankruptcy of a tour operator? No matter how much tour operators insure their liability, the final consumer is always the last one. Moreover, even the duration of presence on the tourism services market does not guarantee the stability of the company. As an example, one of the oldest domestic travel agencies, Neva, can be cited. Therefore, in order not to go bankrupt together with a travel company, it is necessary to make sure of the financial support of the company before purchasing a trip. In other words, you need to find out which insurer the tour operator is serviced by.

List of bankrupt travel agencies, as well as operators “on the verge” of bankruptcy

Despite the personal intervention of Vladimir Putin and the provision of a loan to the tour operator by VTB Bank, in September of the same year the company was declared bankrupt. Lanta's liability was insured by Ingosstrakh for 100 million rubles, but there were so many victims (over 6 thousand tourists) that there was not enough money for everyone and the insurer paid them only half the cost of the failed tours.

Attention

The bankruptcy of the tour operator Lanta-Tour Voyage was the impetus for the creation of the Turpomosch association in the spring of 2012, membership in which is now mandatory for all companies operating in the outbound tourism market. The summer of 2014 will be remembered for a long time by the tourism market.

The first loss of the season was one of the oldest and largest tour operators in the country, Neva. On July 16, the company announced the suspension of operations.

Bankrupt tour operators: anti-rating and which travel agency will close next?

At that moment, there were about 7 thousand tourists abroad sent on vacation by the company, and about 17 thousand more clients had purchased vouchers, but would no longer be able to use them. Shortly before bankruptcy, the tour operator changed its insurance company - from the large Sogaz to the little-known Voskhozhdeniye.

Almost immediately it became clear that the insured amount would not be enough to fully compensate for the damage to all injured tourists. On August 1, it was the turn of Ideal Tour, which specialized in organizing the transportation of tourists, in particular, charter flights. According to the official version, due to the company's debts to the air carrier Orenburg Airlines, the latter canceled about 30 flights, and many tourists were unable to get to their vacation destination or return home.

The very next day, August 2, one of the largest tour operators remaining on the market, Labyrinth, announced the suspension of its activities.

Bankruptcy of tour operators

Speed ​​can be a deciding factor when obtaining compensation. Therefore, you should not delay contacting the insurance company until the last minute.

Insurance and the law Russian legislation is poorly developed regarding travel companies and guarantees for their clients. The mechanism of financial guarantees operates very slowly, travel companies are not regulated by the state and the amount of finance to support a tour operator is very small - 30 million.

Info

When purchasing a trip and declaring the tour operator bankrupt, an insured event occurs, but in practice, very often insurance companies refuse to issue compensation. If the tour operator was declared insolvent during the client’s trip, then the situation is even worse.

In this case, the non-profit organization Tourist Assistance can come to the rescue.

Where can I find a complete list of bankrupt tour operators?

We wish the same for you! How to travel on your own? Or a world without borders! -Read-

• Continue to trust the tour operator you like.

Now we come to the main question... Who can you trust? By and large - to everyone and no one.
Maybe no one else will close until 2015. But the situation is so critical that the slightest additional disturbance in the tourism market (another closure, a splash of negative information in the media, the cessation of work of travel agencies with any tour operator) can instantly “crash” another, even large company... Moreover, in such a difficult situation , many tour operators want to close without waiting for real bankruptcy...
But if you are still used to trusting a tour operator more than yourself, then you should pay attention to the following alarm bells...

Five of the most high-profile bankruptcies of tour operators in Russia

In the last few weeks, the Russian tourism market has been shaken by the bankruptcy of large and very well-known tour operators: Neva, Labyrinth and a number of others. Travel.ru invites you to remember those who loudly left the market.
The first notable bankruptcy of a tour operator in Russia was the collapse of Capital Tour in November 2010. Creditors have blocked the accounts of one of the largest Russian travel companies, citing outstanding debts from the tour operator.
The company's total debt to banks at that time was 1.2 billion rubles. The depth of sales of the tour operator at the time of its cessation of activity reached three to four months, and the number of affected tourists exceeded 8 thousand people.

At the end of December 2010, Capital-Tour officially declared itself bankrupt. At the end of January 2012, the tour operator Lanta Tour Voyage announced the suspension of its activities.

What is bankruptcy of tour operators?

Another mastodon of the tourism business was Firm Neva. In terms of income for 2013, it is slightly inferior to the “Southern Cross” - 3684 million rubles, but the financial support is 454 million rubles. also did nothing to help with the ruin. Examples of decline in 2015 The bankruptcy of tour operators in 2015 is also surprising in its scale. The beginning of this year brought bankruptcy to several dozen travel agencies, both national and regional.

The number of insolvent carriers included Solvex Tour, Versa, Gold Line and others. Basically, everything went off without scandals or conflict proceedings, but there were some exceptions.

During the liquidation of “Labyrinth”, a huge number of various violations were discovered, and the head of “Wind Rose World” even came under arrest while an investigation into the activities of his company was conducted. The head of the Labyrinth was also unlucky. When he tried to escape to Serbia, he was extradited.

All cases: civil and criminal. legal forum

At the same time, IH Finam experts admit that the financial destabilization of Russian travel agencies could be provoked by erroneous management decisions and weak risk control. In addition, an ambiguous debt portfolio, which precludes prompt refinancing in the face of tightening banking requirements, played an important role. According to data from Rostourism, the first quarter of 2014 showed a reduction in the number of holidaymakers abroad by 4%. However, there are no statistics for the second half of the year yet.

However, if we assume that individual operators may have experienced a reduction in demand of 15-20%, then if there are sufficient reserves, short-term sales pressure may not lead to fatal box office losses. Therefore, the conclusion suggests itself that the destabilization occurred due to insufficient liquidity of the companies.

Federal Agency for TourismMinistry of Culture of the Russian Federation

The market economy and the bankruptcy of travel agencies are closely interrelated. We can say that insolvency contributes to the flow of financial and labor potential from ineffective companies to operating organizations.

In addition, the bankruptcy procedure is associated with satisfying the demands of creditors. At the same time, a bankrupt enterprise can cause material damage to its partners or clients. On this basis, there is a need to study in more detail the issue related to the insolvency of tour operators, as well as to consider possible ways of insuring travel companies against bankruptcy. Prerequisites for collapse Not long ago, the director of the Nika travel agency, Mikhail Kornyshev, said that unprofitable cooperation with airlines often leads to the collapse of tour operators. This is due to the fact that travel companies are forced to buy hotel rooms and air tickets a year in advance.

List of bankrupt tour operators

Now, if one of the agencies goes bankrupt, the client will purchase a tour from the funds of this fund. Travel agencies very often, if there are problems with clients, try to buy a tour elsewhere at their own expense in order to avoid problems with litigation and legislation. Guarantees and refunds If a tour operator goes bankrupt, you need to literally run for compensation, having previously prepared all the necessary documents.

The likelihood of receiving compensation depends on the speed, because insurers overestimate their capabilities, which leads to the liquidation of the insurance company after the bankruptcy of the travel agency. No one can give firm guarantees that it will be possible to return the money or get a trip at the expense of the guilty tour operator.

A lot depends on how many other people were deceived and disappointed, how large the financial reserves of the travel agency itself are, how reliable the insurer is and a number of other factors.

The St. Petersburg tour operator "Aelita Travel", which deals with children's holidays, announced the suspension of its activities, translated from legal into colloquial language this usually means bankruptcy. The corresponding message was published on the company's website. As observers note, the reason for the departure of a relatively large tour operator in its niche from the market was an unfavorable combination of circumstances, including mass cancellations of planned charters.

“Due to the inability of the tour operator Aelita Travel LLC to fulfill its obligations under contracts for the sale of a tourist product for reasons beyond its control, and on the basis of Art. 17.4 Federal Law -132 “On tourism activities in the Russian Federation”, hereby notifies of the suspension of tour operator activities from July 17, 2017,” the company said in a statement. It also notes that all tourists who have entered into an agreement with a tour operator should contact the St. Petersburg and Moscow offices of the company “in order to compile a register of applications for the return of funds paid under contracts, formulate a package of documents to submit it to the insurance campaign and resolve the issue of insurance compensation.” .

The fact that the suspension of the tour operator’s activities occurred for reasons beyond the company’s control was actually confirmed by other market players. So, according to the head of the tour operator “Aelita”, the problems are caused by several factors at once. “As far as I know, at the beginning of the season they had problems with VIM-Avia flights. They had to transfer tourists to another airline, where, as I understand, tickets were more expensive. In any case, they charged additional fees for transportation on these flights,” she told a correspondent of the TURPROM information group. However, it is quite possible that the company had to pay extra from its own funds.

Also, according to Ms. Tverdysheva, Aelita Travel also had problems with the Bulgarian camp “Chavdar”. “I don’t know the details, but as far as I know, the owner of the part of the camp with which the tour operator had contractual agreements and with whom they worked directly, died. And, presumably, they were required to pay money again for already paid services - without this, the managers refused to accommodate tourists and provide them with food,” explained the head of Ost-West.

“I think Aelita failed to cope with all these problems. But I can’t give any objective assessment, since this company stood apart in the St. Petersburg children’s recreation market,” the expert added, noting that this company has opened its own office in Moscow for several years. “That is, it cannot be said that things were going badly for them. Indeed, in addition to purely children's recreation, Aelita Travel raised its own charters. But, apparently, these two problems seriously undermined the financial capabilities of the tour operator. Although at the moment, for the same August, all their tours are paid for. But I don’t think the company put itself in that position at the start of the season. No one could predict either the situation with the airline or the situation with the camp,” concluded Natalia Tverdysheva.

It is worth noting here that this is not the first time that unfavorable circumstances have caused even large players to leave the market. Thus, in August last year, the tour operator Brisco, whose main destinations were Turkey and Egypt, announced its bankruptcy. “After the terrorist attack on our airliner on October 31, 2015, as well as the closure of our only two destinations, our company suffered colossal financial and economic losses. Despite the ongoing geopolitical and economic events in Russia and around the world, the company's management continued to take a number of constructive measures to restore the company's activities, as well as look for alternative solutions to the current difficult situation, despite the lack of operating activities throughout the entire winter season 2015/2016 years,” the tour operator’s official statement said then. At the same time, the “last straw” was the revocation of licenses from two insurance companies in a row that provided financial support for the company’s tour operator activities (read more at the link