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 Saturday, the Russian government approved the schedule of public holidays and days of vacation in 2016, according to the official website of the ministry. In January 2016, the Russians will have ten days off to celebrate the New Year and Christmas from 1 to 10 January. In February Russian tourists will be able to travel during a three-day holiday, which coincides with the celebration of the Day of Defender of the Fatherland from 21 to 23 February. In March the government gives a four-day holiday, which coincides with International Women's Day, from 5 to 8 March. The National Unity Day on November 4 will also be a public holiday.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to prohibit flights of Russian airlines in Ukraine, first of all to Aeroflot and to Transaero, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Friday. "We Made a decision to ban flights of Russian airlines, primarily of companies Aeroflot and Transaero in Ukraine", the Cabinet of Ministers wrote on Twitter on Friday. In addition, according to the press service of the Cabinet, the Ukrainian government prohibits flights of Russian airlines as transit through the territory of Ukraine, "if they contain military goods, dual purpose, or the Russian military manpower."

Transition to a new system of issuing Schengen visas for Russian citizens, including the biometric data, passed without major disruptions,according to the poll of representatives of tourism industry, made by Interfax. Since September 14, 2015, the Russians are obliged to take fingerprints and a digital photograph to apply for short-term Schengen visas. This procedure requires a mandatory personal presence of the applicant at the visa application center.

Members of the Russian Union of Travel Industry elected board of the Union, and identified areas of activity in the years 2015-2017, press secretary of the Union Irina Tyurina reported. The following members of the board retained their positions, as President Sergei Shpilko, vice-presidents Yuri Barzykin, Sergei Korneev, and Alexander Osaulenko.

ST. PETERSBURG, September 15. /TASS/. The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city, has been ranked sixth on the 2015 list of the world’s best museums, published on Tuesday by travel website TripAdvisor. Twenty-five winners were selected from among 591 museums worldwide, TripAdvisor said. The Metropolitan Museum in New York City took first place.

Russia is not ready to introduce obligatory fingerprinting for foreigners applying for Russian visas, State Duma deputy Leonid Kalashnikov said on Monday. "I do not think we will introduce fingerprint scanning soon, as the consular offices are not ready to collect fingerprints of foreigners coming to Russia," Kalashnikov said, commenting on the introduction of the obligatory fingerprinting for Russian citizens applying for Schengen visas.

The documents are now set to be shipped to the regions from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. About 1,000 residents of Russia's regions who sent their passports to Moscow embassies to obtain foreign visas have been left without their travel documents after a holdup at the cargo terminal of Sheremetyevo Airport, Russian media reported Thursday.

The decision to open an international airport in Kaluga was made to lower the deficit of regional airports and increase investment attractiveness of the Kaluga Region. A new international airport has opened in central Russia. It is located in the administrative center of a large industrial region of the country - in Kaluga which borders the Moscow Region in the south-west.

In the first half of the year, arrivals from Russia to the EU decreased by 37.4% compared with the same period of the last year, according to the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Tyurina. She explained that these figures are based on statistics from Russian Statistics Service, which does not take into account indicators of Ireland and Luxembourg.

The Government of the Russian Federation held the meeting of the Intergovernmental commission chaired by Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister, on the issues of air transport industry. In the interests of the development of the commercial aviation and creating one of the largest in the world group of airlines, the commission has approved the acquisition of JSC Transaero Airlines by Aeroflot group. The shareholders of Transaero Airlines believe this measure will serve the interests of passengers, personnel and partners of the airline. The Chairman of the meeting has highly appreciated the role of the founders, managers and all the personnel of Transaero Airlines in the modern history of the commercial aviation of the country.

Mikhail Piotrovsky, the Hermitage museum director-general believes that other Russian museums are likely to face similar problems. Police will stop guarding the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in November because of the forthcoming lay-offs at the Russian Interior Ministry, Mikhail Piotrovsky, president of the Russian Museums’ Union and the Hermitage museum director-general, said on Tuesday.

The Association of Russian Tour Operators said the devaluating ruble had caused a 50% decline in Russian outbound tourism since December 2014. Russia’s outbound tourism has decreased by 30% this year, according to the European Commission for Tourism. Eastern Europe has lost almost half of Russian tourists since the start of 2015, the Russian Union of Travel Industry reported on Wednesday referring to Russian tour operators.

Continued fall of the ruble has led not only to a decrease in sales of international trips, but also to the abandonment of partially paid tours, according to the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Turina. "Many customers who have made a pre-payment for the tour and now have to pay the remaining part, try to cancel their trips.

The Visa Department of the German Embassy in Moscow will not work on September 11, changes are made in the schedule of work of visa centers in a number of Russian cities due to the launch of the Visa Information System (EID) of Schengen countries on September 14, according to the German Embassy in Russia. In addition, the reception of visa applications in the center of Kazan, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Saratov in the period from 14 September to 9 October this year will be by appointment only.

The new general director of tour operator MULTITUR is Dmitry Sharov, the press service of the company reported D.Sharov works in Multitur since 2006. He worked operator, head of sales department, the executive director of the company. Previously CEO of MULTITUR was Alexey Vysokanov, who will remain head advisor of the tour operator, but will focus on the work in the management company Atelika.

Russian tour operators do not have debts to the air carriers for the organization of charter flights, airline officials said at a meeting held on Tuesday in Federal Tourism Agency. The meeting was attended by the heads the Federal Tourism Agency, representatives of the association Tourpomosch, the Ministry of Transport and representatives of the airlines Transaero, Aeroflot, UTair, Taimyr, and Orenburg airlines.

The number of consulates and visa centers of the participating countries of the Schengen agreement in Russia may be increased, if necessary, according to the head of the EU Delegation in Moscow, Vygaudas Usackas. "The countries, participants of the Schengen agreement, have an extensive network of consulates and visa centers throughout Russia. This enables them to almost completely cover the demand for Schengen visas. If it will be needed, we might increase the number of visa centers in Russia," he said in an interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Referring to the representatives of travel industry, Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) does not expect big demand for a second international passport for Russians. Although, the service will be in demand by certain categories of tourists. "The second passport is necessary for businessmen, journalists, in other words, for frequent travelers as well as for citizens living in several countries," the PR-director of TEZ Tour Company Larissa Akhanova said.

Insurance company Lloyd-City, which license was suspended by the Central Bank of Russia in June, may be declared bankrupt, the head of the Legislative Department of the Federal Tourism Agency Izo Arakhamia said to Interfax. "We have already informed all insured by Lloyd-City tour operators and recommended them to consider other reinsurance companies", Izo Arakhamia said.

In June 2015: - Transaero carried 1,511,883 passengers, a 5.5% increase over June 2014. - Passenger load factor increased by 3% and reached 87.3%. - Passenger traffic on domestic routes grew by 65.8%.

In the nearest future, Russians will fly abroad with a passport with an electronic chip, according to the head of the Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky. "We are ready to start almost an identity card of the citizen of the Russian Federation with the electronic data. It takes time to solve a number of organizational issues," Konstantin Romodanovsky said on Wednesday at a press conference at the central office of Interfax.

Russian tour operators started optimizing their transportation programs to Greece because of the reduction in demand against the backdrop of economic problems, the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Tyurina said to Interfax.

Tour operator Gold Line announced the suspension of operations, according to the press service of the Federal Tourism Agency. The company's website says that the suspension of operations is related to damages that the tour operator has suffered due to lower demand for tours. According to information of TourDom, there is no one tourist of Gold Line abroad, and only 2-3 are in the tours in Russia. The representatives of Gold Line insured the journalists of TourDom that they do their best to fullfil their obligations.

Orenburg airlines (Orenair, a company of Aeroflot) decided to optimize its fleet due to the reduction of the tourism market and reduced demand for air travel in the country, according to the report of the company to Interfax. According to the annual report of Orenburg airlines, in coordination with Aeroflot, the decision was made to postpone deliveries of new aircraft and to reduce the time of return of other aircrafts. Since the beginning of the year, as part of the fleet optimization program, 9 aircrafts Boeing-737 were taken out of service and returned to the leasing companies.