The Association of Tourist Aggregators will appear on the market
[ad_1]
In preparation for regulation, online accommodation and ticket booking services are creating an industry body, the Travel Aggregators Association. The founders – Tutu, Ostrovok.ru, Yandex Travel and MTC Travel – expect that the union will give weight to their position when discussing relevant legislation and related issues, such as the operation of guest houses. The union may allow reducing costs for the staff of GR specialists, but does not eliminate the need for GR activity of the business itself, experts say.
Online booking services for hotels and tickets are creating the Association of Tourist Aggregators (ATAG), Kommersant was told in the organization itself. ATAG registration with the Ministry of Justice is planned to be completed in March. The head of ATAG will be Yulia Skoromolova, who in 2016–2019 headed the tourism agency of the Ulyanovsk region, and then was GR director of the tour operator Alean. The founders of ATAG were Tutu, Ostrovok.ru, Yandex Travel and MTC Travel. Kommersant companies confirmed participation.
The founders expect that other companies will be able to join ATAG. OneTwoTrip has not yet heard about the union. Ozon Travel says it supports the development of soft regulation in dialogue with the industry. Artem Kromochkin, head of short-term rentals at Avito Real Estate, says that his company does not consider itself a travel aggregator, but is ready to cooperate in related issues. ATAG is a non-profit organization that must operate from membership fees. Director of the Yakovlev and Partners group Maria Yakovleva says that the size of contributions usually varies depending on the capabilities of the participants. Additional income for associations can come from hosting events, she says.
The creation of an association for online travel agencies has become relevant amid discussions about the need to regulate this market. The question of including the concept of “aggregator” in the tourism law has been raised since 2021. Initially, core businesses were hostile to the idea of regulation, but last year they reconsidered their views (see Kommersant, December 15, 2023). “Currently, aggregators rely mainly on the law on the protection of consumer rights, there is no provision in the law on tourism, we will work on this,” says Yulia Skoromolova. ATAG estimates that aggregators account for more than 50% of ticket sales and 32% of hotel bookings.
According to Yulia Skoromolova, ATAG members are also participating in the discussion of the bill on guest houses, the regulation of which is proposed to be experimentally introduced in some regions. According to the existing bill, all such objects must undergo classification, otherwise they will not be able to promote their services, including on aggregators (see Kommersant of January 29). Among other ATAG issues, Ms. Skoromolova highlights the problems of short-term rental housing, transfer of personal data, and requirements for non-capital accommodation facilities.
According to Maria Yakovleva, the presence of a consolidated opinion in the industry strengthens the positions of individual members in conversations with government agencies and other interested parties. Denis Ezhov, senior lawyer at Melling, Voitishkin and Partners, points out that feedback from industry organizations has a greater chance of being heard, and the self-regulatory rules developed by them can be positively perceived by government agencies. As an example, he cites the codes of automakers and good practices in the pharmaceutical industry created by the Association of European Businesses, approved by the Federal Antimonopoly Service.
Kommersant’s interlocutor involved in GR in a large company says that the creation of an association may also be an attempt to reduce staffing costs in GR. According to him, finding a good specialist for less than 500 thousand rubles. per month is difficult. But, he emphasizes, the effectiveness of the association will in any case depend on the GR capabilities of the participants. General Director of the ANO “Digitalization and New Technologies” Alexey Kozhevnikov also points out that the emergence of a specialized structure does not negate the need for GR activity of the business itself, since in some cases it is important for government agencies to hear the position of specific players.
[ad_2]
Source link
