Kazakhstani tour operators are urged to unite in order to minimize potential risks for the outbound tourism market

In April this year, the Investment and Development Department of the Ministry of tourism industry organized a contest to determine the administrator of the system to guarantee citizens' rights in the area of ​​outbound tourism. This system was legally introduced in late 2015, according to amendments to the law "On tourism activities", in order to stabilize the situation in the outbound tourism market, established over the past few years.

The competition was attended by three entities, according to the results the competition committee meeting assigned the highest rating to the corporate fund "Kamkor Turistіk".

In this regard, the other participants of the competition addressed to NCE with the intention to appeal against the results. They did not pass the competition due to the mismatch of activity specified in their charter documents. In addition, as it is stated in paragraph 2 of Art. 27-2 of the law "On tourist activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan", "the administrator of the system, which guarantees the rights of citizens of Kazakhstan in the field of outbound tourism, is a legal person, the only activity of which is administration of the system, to guarantee the rights of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of outbound tourism".

In this regard, participants of the competition, consider that in this case, their documents should have not been allowed for participation in the competition. With the intention to appeal against the results they sent the application to the Department of Tourism Industry of MID RK and an appeal to NCE.

On this occasion, on 19^th of May  this year, at the site of NCE was convened an emergency meeting with representatives from the Department of Tourism Industry RK, industry associations and major tour operators.

As it was noted by the moderator of the meeting, Deputy Chairman of NCE Yuliya Yakupbaeva, the meeting was held to hear all sides and make a decision, as the tourist season begins and everybody needs essential guarantees of stability. "NCE, as a public platform, expresses its concern that he interests of the citizens of Kazakhstan are not negatively affected in the new season ", - said Yu.Yakupbaeva.

According to the Acting Director of DTI of MID RK T. Tyrmyshev, documents of participants were considered on the basis of article 27-2 of the law "On tourist activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan" and the Regulations of the competition. "In accordance with the criteria, the participants are awarded with certain points, thus, by the sum of which the winner was determined corporate fund "Turistіk Kamkor". Documents of other participants do not meet the conditions specified by law. An entity, which claims to be the administrator of the system, has no right to engage in any other activity. This is clearly spelled out in the law, and it is incorrect to accuse us of subjective attitude towards individual participants. In addition, all volunteers can participate in the control of the fund’s  activity, that is, the transparency is ensured", - said the representative of MID RK.

A similar opinion was expressed by the expert of the Department of Legal Protection of Entrepreneurs of NCE RK, who noted that no violations were observed during the competition and the study of documents.

Director of Kazakhstani Association of Tour Operators Inna Ray told about the mechanism of the work of the fund "Kamkor Turistіk". "As you all know, on the annual basis financial scandals occur on the outbound tourism market. As a result, as a result of long discussions appeared documents and was introduced a system, which guarantees the rights of citizens in the field of outbound tourism. Of course, everyone is dissatisfied with something, but our position is - to unite all healthy forces of the market and to ensure the safety of our tourists. To secure guarantees (in addition to the financial guarantee of a tour operator) all tour operators for each sold tourist product will pay a contribution to the special account of the Administrator of the system (in this case, the fund). Each tour operator will have own access code, and an individual number will be assigned to each tour product. Thus, the travel agents will be able to verify the information whether their tour operator is in the fund, and a tourist, who gets a number will be protected. Tools can be worked on in the future. Over time, we will understand what tools are needed, and what are not, but today the financial guarantee is an indicator of the fact that the tour operator is on track. It is also important that the "black market" will get narrower  with the introduction of this system. We invite all to consolidate, and those who doubt the transparency of the Fund, may enter the board that controls its work ", - said Inna Ray.

According to the director of tour operator "Kaztur" Omarova Saltanat, "the fund "Kamkor Turistіk " consist of 10 major tour operators." "If all the Turkish market in 2016 provides 183,000 seats on charter flights, the tour operators, consisting in the fund, have a share of 124 500 people. We must understand that this is a big percentage of the market. We invite everyone to join the tour operators in the fund. If it happens - all the outbound tourism market will be under control. We (the tour operators) are not in favour of financial collapses on the market, because they will be paid by our money. If the Fund does not start to work, who will take the risk, because at any moment something can happen, for example, with the host country", - commented S. Omarova.

According to Deputy Chairman of NCE RK Yuliya Yakupbaeva, it is also important to monitor the work of the fund itself, and for this it is necessary to establish a public council with the participation of associations, the authorized body, NCE, etc.

As it was added by the director of the tour operator “Kompas” Anna Zagoruiko, "all market participants must understand that the administrator of the fund, does not accept any independent decisions. In addition, all tour operators, travel agents and tourists officially included in the electronic database of the Fund".

According to Inna Ray, the created fund can be a powerful tool for the return of confidence to the market. "After all, today, even the insurance companies refuse to work with us as long as we ourselves do not provide guarantees for ourselves and bring our market in order. The same applies to airline companies – it is in everyone’s interest that the tourist market is stable", - she said.

Director of the tour operator "Helios" Aigul Satzhanova dispelled the doubts of tour operators about the introduction of the fund, who, according to her, also previously had doubts, but then she realized that there are some benefits when joining the fund. "I saw the hard work: tour operators, which are competitors with each other, in this case united for the benefit of the common cause. The law was adopted, the tourist season has begun, and there is an urgent need for action ", - she noted.

The representative of Kazakhstani Tourist Association, director of tour operator “Eurasian Express” Natalia Zhulanova voiced the position of the members of the association, noting that they had no complaints, but she has a different vision of this fund. "For example, we believe that the bank guarantee, together with the increased contributions on legal liability, plus another contribution from each sold tourist product to the fund - this is a serious financial burden even for large tour operators, besides all this will lead to a rise in the cost of tour packages, while sales fall. We are also interested in how the calculation of the contributions to the fund will be done, where will be information about this deduction included ? We also have a number of questions to the DTI of MID RK: Why no proper consulting services were provided during the preparation for the contest? If documents were improperly prepared why KTA has been allowed to take part, why a number of serious proposals of KTA (in particular, fund Korgau, which suggested a mechanism of differentiated approach to financial guarantees) have not been considered by the authorized body? "- Asked a reasonable question N. Zhulanova .

As it was noted by the director of tour operator "Kaztur" Omarova Saltanat, "all IATA members are making huge bank guarantees, up to a million dollars, and it is, in fact, international practice".

Director of the branch of a major international tour operator “Anex-tour” Eldar Musaoglu talked about his experience. "When we decided to open a branch in Kazakhstan, I could not believe that to get a license and to start the work as a tour operator is so simple and free. We even hired a law firm to check whether this is true. Therefore, the levers that are used at the moment, are very necessary. In Russia, the major tour operators are paying millions of dollars in financial guarantees, but currently mechanisms are worked out, and the necessary measures are taken, these financial instruments may not be needed", - he said.

Summing up the meeting, Deputy Chairman of the Board of NCE noted that "there are a lot of questions right now because of lack of information". "We now have two options - to block all the work and to leave the market and tourists without protection, or to move forward to make adjustments in the process of working", - said Yuliya Yakupbaeva, adding that the "Atameken" is ready to hold the fund presentation on-site GMP for all regions. According to her, it is necessary to conduct a good information campaign. "If necessary, as for bank guarantees will meet separately with the National Bank and banks. We will also group all comments and suggestions for further improvement of the system of the functioning of the Regulations and  the Rules of the competition, in particular, as offers MID RK, as far as possible reduce of financial guarantee amount in the case of success work of the fund, as well as transparency of commission payments, mandatory creation of the Council to monitor the transparency of the Fund".