Atameken and tour operators’ experts discuss disputable issues of outbound tourism
The experts have discussed the work of the system of returning tourists to Kazakhstan in emergency situations at a meeting of the Tourist Industry Committee of the Presidium of the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs.
The bankruptcy in 2013–2015 of major tour operators resulted in financial losses for citizens, small tour operators and travel agents. Therefore in 2016 Kazakhstan launched the system of guaranteeing the rights of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of outbound tourism, its administer is the Touristik Kamkor corporate fund.
“Since the beginning of the Fund’s work, a misunderstanding has arisen between representatives of the tourism market and the Fund. In particular, there are contradictions on two main issues - the need for additional differentiation of the bank guarantee and the creation of the Supervisory Board of the Fund. The National Chamber has received a letter of intent from members of the Association of tour operators: they want to leave the system and work, like everyone else, outside the law,” chairman of the Committee Pavel Kazantsev said.
Today, about 10% of tour operators deliberately do not enter into the system of guaranteeing the rights of citizens in the field of outbound tourism, due to the small financial possibilities. In addition, the market complains about the lack of transparency, namely the lack of a management plan / investment of the Fund’s resources, and the absence of a supervisory board. According to the director of the Kazakhstan Tourist Association Rashida Shaikenova, representatives of the tourist market have repeatedly raised the issue of the need to differentiate the bank guarantee, which currently stands at 5,000 MCI (12.6 million tenge) and 15,000 MCI (37.9 million tenge) for tour operators and charterers, respectively, however, the mechanism of additional gradation has not been developed.
The Atameken during 2017-2018 worked out the issue of additional differentiation of the bank guarantee for small tour operators, that provide services for less than 1000 tourists a year; however, this proposal was not supported by tour operators.
In turn, the chairperson of the Touristik Kamkor corporate fund Inna Rey spoke about the fund’s work mechanisms, stressing that it was created only to return tourists to Kazakhstan in emergency situations.
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“We will not hold any meetings, all reports on funds can be obtained in the fund, and information is open and accessible. Some participants abuse the situation, and avoid the need to declare all funds received and hide the volume of operations. The government has obliged each tour operator to have a bank guarantee and issue a tour code. This is an attempt to bring our market out of the shadow economy and protect the rights of the tourist and provide the legality of the products sold by the tour operator. I don’t understand why the law is violated,” Inna Ray said.
Another controversial issue was the issuance of licenses. It should be noted that earlier KTA offered to issue license for only outbound tourism and to transfer inbound and internal tourism to the notification procedure. However, not all the companies supported this proposal.
“With the abolition of licensing, an inbound tourism will turn out to be vulnerable and open to tourist companies of other countries,” market representative Kanat Eleusizov said.
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The Atameken worked out the issue of two types of licenses within the framework of the draft law “On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Tourism Activities”. It has been proposed to issue two types of licenses for tour operators: tour operator activity in the field of outbound tourism and tour operator activity in the field of inbound and domestic tourism. This measure will make it possible to withdraw those tour operators who are not sending tourists abroad, but are receiving foreign tourists in the Republic of Kazakhstan, from the Guarantee System.
Following the meeting, the participants agreed to establish a working group, where all market proposals will be collected and worked out as soon as possible.
“A working group and within two weeks we will work on the accumulated controversial issues. First of all, we need to prescribe mechanisms for the operation of the Guarantee System with a differentiated amount of bank guarantees for various tour operators, including charterers and block operators, the responsibility of tour operators and control mechanisms by the authorized body. It is also necessary to clearly indicate which tour package cannot be issued without a Tour Code,” Pavel Kazantsev said.
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