The representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria had a meeting with the Head of Russiatourism (Federal Agency for Tourism) and the representatives of Russian travel business. The main purpose of the meeting was the discussion of exciting problems in tourism sphere between our countries.

When new financial guarantees were discussed, the main argument against it was the fear that small tour operators would have to leave the market. Even there were talks that only one and a half dozen of Moscow operators would remain. However, nothing terrible has happened: there are more than 4 thousand tour operators in the registre. But still, now almost any company can get financial guarantee. We had a talk with the First Vice-President of Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) about the future of travel market.

A drunk Russian pilot was denied permission to take off from Frankfurt airport, police said.

39th World Chess Olympics will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk in September, 2010. Local authorities are planning to organize charter flights to some foreign cities and offer tour operators to cooperate. 

From now on the tourists will be able to receive the visa confirmation for entering Dubai, having only the tickets. There won’t be any necessity for hotels confirmation, sponsor letters and other guarantee documents. This service as available only for the passengers of Emirates air company.

The participants and the visitors of the exhibitions in Crocus Expo will be able to forget about the queues to the buses as a new metro station Myakinino will be opened by the end of this year. The exit from the station will be located in the territory of exhibition centre. 

Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) became an affiliate member of UNWTO. The decision was approved at the 18th session of UNWTO General Assembly in Astana, Kazakhstan. 

The development of special economic zones was the subject of discussion.

The 18th session of the UNWTO General Assembly will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from the 2nd till the 9th of October, 2009. Russian delegation will include the representatives of the Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth Politics of the Russian Federation, Russiatourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and also representatives of regional executive government bodies of tourism sphere. Anatoliy Yarochkin.

American Company Оyster, known as a hotels’ inspection organization, unmasks the hoteliers posting up on their blog the real pictures of the hotels next to retouched advertising versions. 

The analysis of the official statistics shows that the volume of tourist flow of the last summer months (that is traditionally considers to be a high season for Russian market) to Turkey and Bulgaria have not changed a lot in comparison with pre-crisis indicators of the last year. As for the demand for Cyprus it fell to third.

In the framework of 15th International Travel Exhibition Leisure in Crocus Expo the ceremony of awarding the worthy competitors took place.

77% of air travellers will take an indirect flight if it means getting a cheaper airfare, a recent survey on travel site Skyscanner, has revealed. Only 22% of users said that they would pay more to fly direct.

On the 16^th of September, ATOR held a regular meeting of the Club. The main topic of the meeting was new project of ATOR – attestation of managers of travel agencies.