Inbound tour operators don’t give up attempts to solve Russia’s visa problems
Recent initiative of the President Dmitry Medvedev, who instructed the government to submit proposals on simplification of visa regime for foreign tourists until June, 1, has stirred hope of tour operators, which are directly affected by the problem. The General Director of Russian receiving company Svoy TT, Sergey Voytovich in an opened letter to the Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) Alexander Radkov set out certain factors, which stand in the way of inbound tourist flow to Russia, particularly from Spain.
As written in the form of address, privately-owned Twim Inversions 2008 Company stands for visa application center of the Russian Federation in Spain. Openly using its monopoly to “assist” in obtaining Russian visas, on the eve of new season this company deprived all Spanish tour operators, offering tours to Russia, of all privileges in the cost of service fee and terms of issuing visas. Those travel agents who advertise trips to Russia at their own expense are now put in one same queue with private applicants. For example, the service fee charged by Twim Inversions 2008 is 230% more than the cost of a similar service provided by Spanish visa application center in Russia.
Sergey Voytovich explained to RATA-news that for urgent processing of an application for a Spanish visa Russian applicants are charged 21 euros, which is the same as for an ordinary one, but the period of issuing is one day. Spaniards pay to Russian visa center and thus to Twim inversions 2008 as much as 50 euro for the same service. “Besides the fact that same procedure in Spain costs much more than in Russia, visas are issued within 72 hours, exclusive of the day of submitting the documents and receiving the passport”,- says Mr. Voytovich.
In his letter to the Head of Rostourism he recalls, that this issue was raised not only by Russian tour operators, but also by major Spanish ones, as well as the honored Counsel of Russian Federation on the Canary Islands. "Both Russian and foreign tour operators don’t need services of middlemen. They can on their own collect and properly arrange documents of their tourists for further transferring to Russian consular offices in Spain”, - says Sergey Voytivich.
Mr. Voytovich sent similar appeal to the Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitaly Mutko. In this letter there are interesting examples of collaboration with consulates of foreign countries who eloquently demonstrate whether the country is interested in foreign tourists or not.
1. From December 2011, Svoy TT Company became an UEFA-certified tour operator in organizing tours for Russian fans to Euro 2012; this information is available on the website of UEFA. In January 2012 we sent a request to the Embassy of Poland in Russia for the accreditation of our company in order to be able to apply for visas. A week later, the First Secretary of the Embassy and General Consul of Poland visited our office. After checking all the necessary documents, they have decided to accredit us and advised us on all the nuances of the visa application formalities.
At the same time, in the consulate of Spain in Moscow, Russia's largest tour operators on the destination are accredited, they submit documents for visas not through a visa center, but directly. Others have special conditions when applying for visa through the visa center: a special window is opened for them, the processing period is reduced, and the service fee is with a very good discount for them”, - reads the letter.
The third letter Sergey Voytovich headed to the head of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Andrei Karlov. He asks “to intervene decisively in this difficult situation, to eliminate the monopoly of the company Twim Inversions