The Russian authorities are preparing measures to strengthen control over tourist trips of the population abroad.

For this purpose, it is planned to expand the use of the Electronic Voucher system, which will collect data on tours purchased by citizens through travel companies.

The system, which was developed from 2015 in the framework of the law "On the basics of tourist activities," was originally conceived as a voluntary one.

Now Rosturizm and Rostech proposed to make it mandatory for all tour operators, and the transfer of information - to consolidate the legislation.

The further fate of the "Electronic voucher" was discussed in May with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who gave a resolution that he "agrees" with the proposals of "Rostekh" and Rosturizm, RBC director of the association "Tourist Information" Alexander Osaulenko said.

The business has been warned that in the near future the "Electronic voucher" will become mandatory, he added. The operators were informed about this at the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the association "Tourist Information", held on June 21.

The operator of the "Electronic voucher" will be JSC "National Tourist Technologies" - the structure of the state corporation "Rostekh". The corresponding assignment was given by Putin after the request of the Rostezh and Rosturizma itself, a source in the agency told RBC.

Now the government is working on "organizing the execution of this commission," added in Rosturizm.

In the original, voluntary form, "Electronic voucher" was supposed to be earned from January 1, 2018. The project spent 500 million rubles, but it could not be launched in time.

The developer of the system - Asteros JSC - filed for bankruptcy in March.

In early June, ATOR reported that the "Electronic voucher" is no longer available to market participants: the site of Rostourism disappeared section, from which tour operators could enter the system. At the same time, the warranty period was completed, during which the group "Asteros" was supposed to support and finalize the system.

According to ATOR sources, the company has almost no personnel capable of supporting the system, and the location of the servers on which it was located is unknown.

Permission for Chemezov: what data of tourists instructed to process Rostehu
RBC, June 25, 2013

The fate of the "Electronic voucher", and not earned the equivalent of the EGAIS for tourist business, decided Vladimir Putin. In response to the appeal of Rosturizm and Rosteha, the president instructed to designate one of the structures of the state corporation as the operator of the system.

The commission of the president

The structure of the state corporation "Rostekh" - National Tourism Technologies JSC - became the operator of the "Electronic Travel" information system, a representative of the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) told RBC, which is the customer of the system. As early as May 17, President Vladimir Putin instructed the definition of "National Tourism Technologies" as an operator of the "Electronic voucher", RBC's interlocutor specified. According to him, the commission was the result of a joint appeal of Rostech and Rosturizm to the president. Now the government is working on "organizing the execution of this commission," added in Rosturizm.

The presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov did not respond to RBC's request. Representatives of tourism supervising vice-premier Olga Golodets and the Ministry of Culture, subordinated organization of which is Rosturizm, declined to comment. The same was done in the press service of Rostekh.

The issue of appointing the Rostekha structure by the operator of the "Electronic voucher" was discussed on Thursday, June 21, at the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Association "Tourist Information", told its director Alexander Osaulenko. According to him, tour operators were informed of the proposals of Rosturizm and Rosteha and "there was a resolution of Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] that he agrees with these proposals."

Now, according to the law "On the basics of tourist activities in Russia," tour operators can connect to the "Electronic ticket" voluntarily. Rosturizm and "Rostekh" proposed "legislative approval of the obligation to use e-ticket by market participants," the representative of the agency said. The business has been warned that in the near future the "Electronic ticket" will become mandatory, Osaulenko added.

In the electronic path

The system "Electronic voucher", according to the law "On the bases of tourist activities in the Russian Federation", was supposed to earn from January 1, 2018 and become, according to Rosturizm, a new mechanism for controlling the industry. With its help, tourists can track the status of their tour by the tour number: information about payment by the transport operator, accommodation in the hotel, insurance, visa registration and other services. A system worth 500 million rubles. on the order of Rosturizm since 2015 the group "Asteros" was developing. The project was also interested in Rostech: in July 2017 the radioelectronic technologies group, which is part of the state corporation, agreed with Rosturizm that it would participate in the development of the system.

But to launch the "Electronic ticket" in time was not possible: at the end of 2017, the subordinate legislation necessary for its launch was not adopted. They are not ready completely now. In Rosturizm clarified that this issue is involved in the Ministry of Culture. The ministry said that two orders have already been developed and adopted, two more draft resolutions needed to launch the system have been submitted to the government and are awaiting adoption.

The technical development of the system is completely completed and ready for commissioning in commercial operation, previously stated in "Asteros". The system was tested by about 100 tour operators, including NTC Intourist, PAC Group, VIP Service, TUI Russia & CIS. But at the end of 2017, none of the surveyed tour operators confirmed to RBC that they intend to move completely to work in the system. In the "electronic ticket" a lot of technical flaws, and it must be improved, said tour operators. The system does not solve the task of protecting the consumer, nor the task of improving the market, said in May the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), Maya Lomidze.

At the end of March, Asteros filed for bankruptcy. The company explained that the "specificity of projects" in the market of heavy infrastructure construction and late payment execution by some customers "caused limitations of the company's operating activities and risks of meeting obligations." All works within the framework of the concluded contracts for the "Electronic ticket" were fully implemented, and the system was transferred to the customer, assured in "Asteros". It was assumed that Rosturizm, which became the operator of the system, will hold a tender for its maintenance.

In early June, ATOR reported that the "Electronic ticket" is no longer available to market participants: the site of Rosturizm disappeared section, from which tour operators could enter the system. It was at this point that the warranty period ended, during which the Asteros group was supposed to support and finalize the system. According to ATOR sources, the company has almost no personnel capable of supporting the system, and the location of the servers on which it was located is unknown.

Who owns the new operator of the "tourist EGAIS"

JSC "National Travel Technologies" was established in November 2017, the main activity - the development of computer software, follows from the SPARK data. State Corporation Rostekh through its subsidiary JSC Concern Radioelectronic Technologies owns a 25% stake in the company. The rest is distributed equally between OOO Skif (owner - Ekaterina Malyutina), OOO Palmiro (Olga Nefedova) and LLC Stolypin (Arthur Smirnov). All the companies - partners of the state corporation were registered in the spring and last summer.

Ghost Commission

The structure of "Rosteha" has technological capabilities for finalizing and operating the "Electronic voucher", says Dmitry Gorin, general director of VIP Service. He agrees with Rosturizm that the system will provide protection for tourists and make the industry more transparent. Now operators of outbound tourism, as already wrote by RBC, save on deductions to funds designed to protect tourists in the event of the collapse of companies, understating the number of tourists sent to rest and the cost of tours. For example, one company from Nakhodka reported on tours abroad for an average cost of less than 2 rubles.

"Electronic tour" does not take into account the real working conditions of tour operators, therefore the structure of "Rosteha" will not be able to complete it without consulting the tourist business, Lomidze noted. In her opinion, if the system is mandatory, in by-laws should be written obligations of tour operators and the order of interaction with the system.

When finalizing and stage-by-stage commissioning, the system can be launched from January 1, 2019, through it will be more than 20 million tours a year, according to a source of RBC involved in discussing the future of this project. The service of the "Electronic tour", according to the interlocutor of RBC, will cost the structure of "Rostecha" more than 1 billion rubles. per year, excluding the cost of its completion. Even if the work in the system is free for its participants, the cost of a large tour operator to integrate the software will amount to at least 2 million rubles., Noted the interlocutor of RBC. Total as of June 22, 2018 in the Single Federal Register of Tour Operators, which leads Rosturizm, there were 4,444 companies.

If the operator of the "Electronic voucher" is not Rosturizm, but a private structure, it is possible that the new operator will want to charge a fee for using the system, RBC expressed fears one of the participants in the tourism market. It can also be a payment for connection and adaptation of the system or a commission for its use. Under such a scheme, for example, the Transport Clearing House operates. It provides mutual settlement services between airlines, travel agents and customers and charges a commission of at least 185 rubles per one electronic ticket.

Rostekh already has a project related to the tourism and transport sectors. In March 2016, the state corporation completed the development of an air ticket reservation system. It was created in partnership with Vnukovo airport, including to protect these passengers: Russian airlines now use Western reservation systems, and the data is stored abroad. The project, called the "National Booking System," has been operating since last year, it has already been fully implemented by Azimut and Atlas Global. In part, Urals Airlines and Utair joined this system, the co-owner of the airport Vitaly Vantsev said in an interview to Vedomosti. In the development of the system, he said, $ 50 million was invested.