Tour Operators' Personal Responsibility Fund per year. Press about insurance, insurance companies and the insurance market

“The tourist should be offered something that he cannot organize on his own”
Dmitry FOMINTSEV
"TurTransVoyage"
CEO
The lady came to this holiday with our group, and the next year we met her there already as the winemaker's wife - she received our tourists with him! Another tourist met her love - an Italian - in Venice, where the group spent only 9 hours.

“Whoever has good prices, service, speed and technology will win”
Svetlana DROZDOVA
"Russian Express"
director of FIT department
“It was in the individual tourism sector that the market lacked the available technologies to work quickly. "Russian Express" offered them: it became more convenient for agents. They trust us with their precious VIP clients.”“We have a great team - many have been working for more than 10 years, and some since the opening of the hotel”
Svetlana MIKHALEVSKY
Azimut Hotel
CEO
Most likely, this is the result of stable demand for trips to Moscow on the part of Russians. And we have a lot of returning guests. Last year, the Azimut network updated the loyalty program, and this has borne fruit. Although, of course, people come to us not because of bonus points, but for the sake of a high level of service.“There are a lot of uncontrollable risks in the tourism business”
Elena VOROPAEVA
Olimp Consult
director
The main reason for the sale of the business has not changed, and the cost has dropped significantly - 10-11 years ago, the average price of the agency was about 2-3 million rubles, since then they have become cheaper by 10-15% annually, and now, in fact, they are sold at the cost of furniture and office equipment. The average check is about 600 thousand rubles“What we came up with for selling excursions in Serpukhov can be useful to any small town”
Yuri YASHCHUK
Golden domes
director
If the city offers different group tours and they can be selected at the trip planning stage, this may affect the occupancy of hotels, restaurants, souvenir sales, etc. This approach can surpass the effect of event tourism.“By arranging mass distribution of souvenirs, the exhibitors themselves attract non-target audience to the stands”
Artem CHERNYSHOV
MITT
director
An exhibition is a costly thing, so put on these three days of professionals who can normally answer questions and provide the necessary information. Only in this case is it likely that visitors will become your partners“We are the first to offer Russian tourists to celebrate the New Year in Nazareth”
Anastasia STARIKOVSKI
Hotel Ramada Nazareth
international sales director
Nazareth is one of the holiest places in the world, where Jesus Christ grew up. There are many churches in the city, for example, the stunningly beautiful Church of the Annunciation with a unique mosaic depicting the Madonna and Child. The atmosphere in the city during the New Year and Christmas holidays is special"Visiting the industry exhibition by professional players has not lost its relevance"
Artem CHERNYSHOV
MITT
director
Exhibitions reflect the state of the market as a whole. The ruble is falling, there are fewer tourists. Our market is overheated, the number of agencies and tour operators is clearly excessive. It is clear that they opened in fat times, but now the situation has changed“Hoteliers have the privilege of being open 24 hours a day”
Cornelia Brinkman
Marriott Novy Arbat, Courtyard City Center
general manager
Not all young people are ready to give up parties with friends for the sake of an unscheduled check-in, and treat the client as the only one, even if he is the three hundredth in a row today. This needs to be taught. Therefore, we pay a lot of attention to interns, we rely on them"You can see the real Japan in Tottori Prefecture"
Dina DERGUNOVA
Frigate Aero Tours
tourism director
Hotels opened by foreigners are also in demand because many guests of Japan face a language problem: in small towns it is difficult to speak English. Muscovites do not expect to meet Russians and are usually interested in how we got here. But most of all, the Japanese themselves are surprised“Russian travel agencies buy blocks of places for cruises to the Arctic and Antarctic”
Marina VLASOVA
Poseidon Expeditions
CEO
Now, by the way, is the time to offer such cruises. A few years ago, customers were surprised when we said in November that there were no more places for the New Year in Antarctica. And today the Russian market is used to the fact that these trips need to be booked a year and a half in advance.“Hilton’s arrival in the regions shakes up local hotels”
Vladimir ILYICHEV
Hilton Worldwide in Russia and the CIS
development managing director
Frankly, we are pushing tourists to book directly on our websites. Indeed, when accessing online services, members of the loyalty program do not receive bonus points. In addition, on our official resources the price is 2-3% lower“The key trend in the hostel market is the blurring of boundaries between formats”
Natalia ROZENBLUM
Top Hotel Experts
managing partner
Whatever locality we are talking about, for the development of hostels there must initially be both business and tourist life. If people go to the city only on a business trip, then people are limited to old hotels and hostelsInfoflot is a supermarket that offers more than 3 thousand river and sea cruises
Andrey MIKHAILOVSKY
"Infoflot"
CEO
We have more than 6 thousand agencies throughout the country. I think we managed to achieve such a result, because we ourselves started as an agency, we are familiar with all the difficulties that stand in the way. Accordingly, we know how to overcome them.“We collected the hotel for the opening, like a debutante for a ball”
Svetlana MIKHALEVSKY
Holiday Inn Express Moscow Paveletskaya
general manager
The standards of the Holiday Inn Express brand include a fundamentally new format of service. For example, we do not have a division between office functions and F&B work. That is, any employee should be able to check in a guest, pour coffee for him, and warm up the soup"The World Cup is a great chance for the development of inbound tourism in Russia"
Sergei VOITOVICH
"Your vehicle"
director
In the second week of November: starts on November 7 in Lima, then Buenos Aires on November 9, Montevideo on November 10 and Sao Paulo in Brazil on November 14. We will be able to present programs and packages for tourists and fans to local tour operators, talk about the simplified procedure for entering our country with a Fan ID (Fan Id) If the tour operator of outbound tourism did not create a personal fund in January, then he is not entitled to engage in the formation and sale of foreign tours. The basis is the provisions of the new version of Law No. 132-FZ.

As of mid-January 2017, only 1/5 of all outbound tourism tour operators have formed a personal responsibility fund, while the deadline for creating a fund for 2017 is 12/31/2017 (clause 3, article 5 of the Federal Law of 03/02/2016 No. 49-FZ It is quite obvious that some companies will leave the market of tour operator services for outbound tourism, since they cannot afford to pay contributions to the personal responsibility fund.On the other hand, there are prerequisites to say: large tour operators will prefer to create such a fund right away in the maximum amount in order to avoid the need to issue security.The procedure for exemption from financial security has already been approved (see Order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation of November 11, 2016 No. 2468) and registered with the Ministry of Justice on December 29, 2016.

Grounds for exclusion from the register of tour operators.

On the website of Rostourism on January 17, 2017, a message appeared that the department would be forced to exclude from the register of tour operators those who had to create a personal responsibility fund in the field of outbound tourism before January 31, 2017 and did not do it on time.

The procedure is the following. First, such a tour operator is excluded from the association of tour operators in the field of outbound tourism (hereinafter referred to as Tour Assistance) from its members.

STEP 1 - exclusion from Travel Assistance

According to Art. 11.1 of Law No. 132-FZ, non-payment of contributions to the tour operator's personal liability fund on time and in the required amount is the basis for terminating the tour operator's membership in the Tour Assistance association. By virtue of the Procedure for the submission by the Tourist Assistance association to Rostourism of a notification of the termination of the tour operator's membership in the specified association, such a document must be drawn up and sent to Rostourism in electronic form within one day after the decision by Tourist Assistance to terminate the tour operator's membership in the association.

The tour operator information is then excluded from

STEP 2 - Deregistration

In accordance with Art. 4.2 of Law No. 132-FZ Rostourism excludes information about the tour operator from the register the next day after receiving information from Tourist Assistance about the termination of membership in this association by a specific tour operator.

Thus, in the first half of February, we should expect Rostourism to update the list of tour operators operating in the outbound tourism market. This information is of particular interest to travel agencies that practice early booking tours and not only. To reduce your risks of selling foreign tours on behalf of illegitimate tour operators, you need to carefully monitor information about companies that have created (have not created) a personal liability fund.

General procedure for paying contributions to the personal liability fund.

All creation and subsequent filling of personal liability funds for tour operators are formulated in paragraph 3 of Art. 5 of Law No. 49-FZ and Art. 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ.

The tour operator's personal responsibility fund is formed at the expense of an annual fee, the amount of which is equal to 1% of the total price of a tourist product in the field of outbound tourism for the previous year (parts 2, 3 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ).

Initial fund creation

	Contribution amount	Payment procedure
Current tour operators	1% of the total price of the outbound tourism product for the previous year (2016)	Until 01/31/2017. It is before this date that tour operators must pay contributions to the fund for 2017 (clause 3, article 5 of Law No. 49-FZ). From the wording of the law it is clear that in January the annual fee must be paid in full
		Prior to the start of activities in the field of outbound tourism (part 7 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ)

fund accumulation

	Contribution amount	Payment procedure
Current tour operators	1% of the total price of the outbound tourism product for the previous year	Quarterly - in equal shares no later than the 15th day of each month following the expired calendar quarter (part 4 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ)
Newly created tour operators (tour operators that have not previously carried out activities in the field of outbound tourism)	1% of the total price of the outbound tourism product sold by the tour operator in the previous calendar quarter	Quarterly - no later than the 15th day of each month following the expired calendar quarter (part 4 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ)

Termination (suspension) of contributions to the fund and exemption from financial security.

The maximum size of the personal liability fund is set at a rate of at least 7% of the total price of a tourist product in the field of outbound tourism for the previous year. Tour operators have the right to gradually increase the size of the fund or immediately create it in the maximum amount. In any case, if the fund reaches its maximum size in the current year, the tour operator has the right not to transfer contributions for the next calendar year, moreover, such a tour operator does not need financial support. However, the right to these preferences must first be confirmed by the Federal Tourism Agency. The link is Tourist Assistance.

Exemption from financial security and replenishment of the fund.

The procedure for implementing this procedure is approved by Order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation No. 2468. First, the tour operator must apply to Tourist Assistance with a written application. This must be done no later than 60 days before the expiration date of the current calendar year. That is, it is necessary to decide for yourself the issue of stopping the filling of the personal liability fund and the registration of financial security two months before the end of the year in which the personal liability fund reached its maximum size.

Based on this application, Turpomoshch is preparing a draft decision on the release of the tour operator from financial security and payment of contributions to the personal responsibility fund for the next year.

Further, the draft decision as part of the required package of documents is sent to the Federal Tourism Agency for approval. And only after receiving a positive response from the Federal Tourism Agency, the tour operator is notified of the positive resolution of his issue.

Needless to say, at each stage it is possible to refuse to consider the application of the tour operator - if there is an error in the preparation of documents or the inaccuracy of the specified data.

Storage of funds of the personal liability fund and conditions for their return.

As stated in Art. 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ, the funds of such funds are subject to placement (in rubles or foreign currency) on separate accounts of Tourist Assistance and the association keeps separate records for them. Requirements for organizations in which the fund's funds can be placed are established by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 24, 2016 No. 1474. Income from the placement of the fund's funds on accounts or deposits of authorized credit institutions is credited to this fund.

When the tour operator terminates activities in the field of outbound tourism, the funds of the personal liability fund are subject to return to the tour operator if he has fulfilled all his obligations to tourists regarding the sale of the tourist product in the field of outbound tourism.

Of course, the described procedure for storing, multiplying and returning the funds of the fund makes its one-time creation in the maximum amount more attractive compared to the gradual accumulation of the fund and the parallel registration of financial security. After all, the practice of insuring the liability of tour operators and issuing a bank guarantee by them demonstrates the impossibility
ensuring obligations to tourists in these ways.

The contribution to the "personal" fund for 2017 is calculated from the total price of foreign tours sold by the tour operator in 2016 and is payable before 01/31/2017. After this date, tour operators that have not formed a personal liability fund will not be able to continue their activities in the field of outbound tourism. They will be excluded from the register of tour operators.

Some "major players" of the tour operator market have already indicated their readiness to create a fund in the maximum amount and refuse to issue financial guarantees. The costs of paying fees are partly offset by agencies, which are cut off the percentage of agency fees. Of course, this is a painful step for travel retail, but after 01/31/2017 it may turn out that the number of tour operators in the outbound tourism market has significantly decreased and there is simply no one to choose from, you will have to work with those who remain, and on the terms dictated by them. Such a transformation of the market is pushing the middle market to work according to “gray” schemes. Increasingly, travel agency forums began to receive messages about the need to return to self-booking hotels and tickets for tourists. We once again warn: the organization of travel and accommodation for the client, even on the basis of agency agreements, is an activity for the formation of a tourist product. This activity can only be carried out by tour operators, if the tour company is not one, it should be prepared to pay huge administrative fines.

The insurer's funds for financial guarantees will not be enough for all the tourists affected by the actions of Natalie Tours, which was excluded from the register yesterday. Inevitably, other payment mechanisms will be involved. "Vestnik ATOR" understood the intricacies of the mechanism of payments from the personal fund "Natalie Tours".

And, as a result, the inability of the company to continue operating activities is the basis for tourists to apply for payments to the insurance company, lawyers confirm.

Recall that on September 3, three legal entities operating under the Natalie Tours brand were excluded from the register: these are Panorama Tour LLC, NATALIE Travel Agency LLC, Natalie Tours Tour Operator LLC. The total amount of financial guarantees for these three legal entities is 100.5 million rubles. But tourists should not count on such an amount.

The vast majority of tours were sold by the company through the Panorama Tour legal entity, insured by Ingosstrakh for 50 million rubles. Today (a package of necessary documents and deadlines for receiving applications and addresses of offices for their submission, etc.). Lawyers strongly recommend that affected tourists of Natalie Tours do not delay submitting an application and a package of supporting documents to the insurance company.

Earlier, the head of Natalie Tours said that before the stop of sales on July 4, 2018, “about 30 thousand people” were supposed to go on vacation through the company. The total amount of their claims, according to expert estimates, . Thus, tourists will receive no more than 4.2% of the cost of their tours as compensation. Tourists who have bought tours in Natalie Tours through other legal entities of the company will probably be in a more advantageous position - according to available information, there are few such tourists - and it is they who have every chance to get the full cost of the tour that failed due to the fault of the tour operator back.

Having stopped sales, Natalie Tours retained for many tourists the opportunity to use paid air tickets on regular flights, but again tourists had to pay for accommodation and other services in the host country. This fact may somewhat reduce the total amount of tourists' claims.

So, at a recent meeting with the participation of Rostourism and Tourist Assistance, Vladimir Vorobyov announced that he plans to attract as investments. This information was previously posted on the Tourist Assistance website, but later disappeared from there. It is possible that it is this amount that needs to be returned to tourists - by closing the debts, the tour operator could start selling again. If this is true, then the amount of tourist payments increases to 7.1%.

IF THE INSURER'S COMPENSATION IS NOT ENOUGH

In addition to financial guarantees, Natalie Tours legal entities have a personal liability fund operating under Tourist Assistance. Thus, the actual size of the personal liability fund of Panorama Tour LLC is 4,687,500 rubles.

It is obvious that this amount will not be enough to pay the clients of "Natalie Tours" in full. However, according to the law, tourists have the right to count on this money if the insurer's funds under the tour operator's liability insurance contract turned out to be insufficient (Article 11.6.).

"Turpomoshch" must notify on its website about the start of collecting claims for reimbursement of funds from the personal liability fund of the tour operator.

According to the law, tourists have the right to rely on funds in the personal liability fund of Panorama Tour LLC if the insurer's funds under the tour operator's liability insurance contract turned out to be insufficient (Article 11.6.).

“Since the Panorama Tour fund has not reached the maximum size (this is 7% of the total amount of funds received from the sale of the tourist product), this will happen no earlier than 60 days after the date when the association of tour operators became aware of the termination of the tour operator activities of the company ”, - explains the head of the ATOR Legal Service Nadezhda Efremova.

The mechanism for reimbursement of funds from the Panorama Tour personal liability fund is as follows:

The register of appeals is formed by the association within 90 working days;

After 90 days, the association, within 10 working days, reviews the submitted claims for reimbursement of funds and the documents attached to them and makes a decision to compensate the tourist and (or) other customer for real damage or to refuse such compensation;

Payments from the fund are made within 3 days after the relevant decision is made.

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If the outbound tourism tour operator did not create a personal liability fund in January, then he is not entitled to engage in the formation and sale of foreign tours. The basis is the provisions of the new version of the Law No. 132 FZ.

As of mid-January 2017, only 1/5 of all outbound tourism tour operators have formed a personal responsibility fund, while the deadline for creating a fund for 2017 is 12/31/2017 (clause 3, article 5 of the Federal Law of 03/02/2016 No. 49-FZ. It is quite obvious that some companies will leave the market of outbound tourism tour operator services, since they cannot afford to pay contributions to the personal liability fund. On the other hand, there are prerequisites to say: large tour operators will prefer to create such a fund right away in the maximum amount in order to avoid the need to issue financial security.The procedure for exemption from financial security has already been approved (see Order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation of November 11, 2016 No. 2468) and registered with the Ministry of Justice on December 29, 2016.

BASIS FOR EXCLUSION FROM THE REGISTER OF TOUR OPERATORS.

H On the website of Rostourism on January 17, 2017, a message appeared stating that the department would be forced to exclude from the register of tour operators those who had to create a personal responsibility fund in the field of outbound tourism before January 31, 2017 and did not do so on time.

STEP 1 - exclusion from Travel Assistance

Then information about the tour operator is excluded from the federal register.

STEP 2 - Deregistration

GENERAL PROCEDURE FOR PAYING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FUND.

All issues of creation and subsequent filling of personal liability funds for tour operators are formulated in paragraph 3 of Art. 5 of Law No. 49-FZ and art. 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ.

The tour operator's personal liability fund is formed at the expense of an annual fee, the amount of which is equal to 1% of the total price of a tourist product in the field of outbound tourism for the previous year (parts 2, 3 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ).

Initial fund creation

	Contribution amount	Payment procedure
Current tour operators	1 % of the total price of the outbound tourism product for the previous year (2016)	Until 01/31/2017. It is before this date that tour operators must pay contributions to the fund for 2017 (clause 3, article 5 of Law No. 49-FZ). From the wording of the law it is clear that in January the annual fee must be paid in full
	RUB 100,000	Prior to the start of activities in the field of outbound tourism (part 7 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ)

fund accumulation

	Contribution amount	Payment procedure
Current tour operators	1 % of the total price of the outbound tourism product for the previous year	Quarterly - in equal shares no later than the 15th day of each month following the expired calendar quarter (part 4 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ)
Newly created tour operators (tour operators that have not previously carried out activities in the field of outbound tourism)	1 % of the total price of the outbound tourism product sold by the tour operator in the previous calendar quarter	Quarterly - no later than the 15th day of each month following the expired calendar quarter (part 4 of article 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ)

TERMINATION (SUSPENSION) OF DEPARTMENTS TO THE FUND AND EXEMPTION FROM FINANCIAL SECURITY.

The maximum size of the personal liability fund is set at no less than 7% of the total price of a tourist product in the field of outbound tourism for the previous year. Tour operators have the right to gradually increase the size of the fund or immediately create it in the maximum amount. In any case, if the fund reaches its maximum size in the current year, the tour operator has the right not to transfer contributions for the next calendar year, moreover, such a tour operator does not need financial support. However, the right to these preferences must first be confirmed by the Federal Tourism Agency. The link is Tourist Assistance.

EXEMPTION FROM FINANCIAL SECURITY AND REPLENISHMENT OF THE FUND.

STORAGE OF THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FUND AND THE CONDITIONS OF THEIR RETURN.

As stated in Art. 11.6 of Law No. 132-FZ, the funds of such funds are subject to placement (in rubles or foreign currency) on separate bank accounts of Tourist Assistance and the association keeps separate records for them. Requirements for credit institutions in which the fund's funds can be placed are established by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 24, 2016 No. 1474. Income from the placement of the fund's funds on accounts or deposits of authorized credit institutions is credited to this fund.

When the tour operator terminates activities in the field of outbound tourism, the funds of the personal liability fund are subject to return to the tour operator if he has fulfilled all his obligations to tourists under the concluded agreements on the sale of a tourist product in the field of outbound tourism.

* * *

Some "major players" of the tour operator market have already indicated their readiness to create a fund in the maximum amount and refuse to issue financial guarantees. The costs of paying fees are partly offset by agencies, which are cut off the percentage of agency fees. Of course, this is a painful step for travel retail, but after 01/31/2017 it may turn out that the number of tour operators in the outbound tourism market has significantly decreased and there is simply no one to choose from, you will have to work with those who remain, and on the terms dictated by them. This transformation of the market is pushing medium and small businesses to work according to "gray" schemes. Increasingly, travel agency forums began to receive messages about the need to return to self-booking hotels and tickets for tourists. We once again warn: the organization of travel and accommodation for the client, even on the basis of agency agreements, is an activity for the formation of a tourist product. This activity can only be carried out by tour operators, if the tour company is not one, it should be prepared to pay huge administrative fines.

Tourist and hotel services: accounting and taxation, No. 1, 2017