Putin proposes to create single registry of travel agencies to rid market of scams

The creation of a single registry for travel agencies will make the market more transparent, said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the presidium of the State Council on the development of tourism on Monday. He stressed that "the need to ensure the reliability and transparency of travel agents activities, to liberate the market from one-day firms and all sorts of scams." "On the agenda is the introduction of a unified register of travel agents, one of the public organizations of tour operators could deal with that. The creation of this registry will help to provide transparency of the entire technological process; from the tourist product to its realization, and it will allow to create high professional standards with the tourism industry. It will also increase the responsibility of travel agents before the final consumer," President Putin said. He also pointed out the need to continuously improve the level of service offered to tourists. To do this, President Putin said that it is necessary to continue the standardization and certification of tourist facilities in accordance with the international requirements. According to him, particular attention should be paid to protecting the rights of tourists. "This is an extremely important issue because there are still very, very many violations in this area," President Putin said. He believes that the key role in improving the quality of tourism can be played by travel agencies that currently have more than 80% of sales in this area.