Russian tour operators are dissatisfied with the "situation in the tourism market that has developed as a result of the activities of the Dutch firm Booking.com in Russia". Discontent has reached such an extent that the head of one of the tour operators, Sergey Voitovich,
sent a letter to the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture, demanding to deal with foreign services that undermine the national tourism industry. These services include Booking.com, TripAdviser and Airbnb. Voitovich calls for limiting the work of Booking.com in Russia in response to anti-Russian sanctions by the US and the EU.
The idea of Voitovich could be considered an unsuccessful joke, but today it became known that the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture
instructed Rostourism to "work through the proposals" of Voitovich .
"In connection with your appeal dated 04.04.2018 No. 10997, the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation informs that, in order to consider the issue mentioned in the appeal, Rosturizm was instructed to work it out together with industry-specific associations and expert community," the text of the letter
quoted by the industry publication "Turprom".
Sergey Voitovich argued that the proposal to ban Booking.com’s work in Russia a month ago was because Russian tour operators were being forced out of the hotel’s territory because of him: “When we started coming to small hotels, we were told: we’re not very interested in Russian tour operators, because we have Booking.com. And this situation is almost everywhere - groups and business travelers are still ready to accept hotels, but individual reservations are given to Bucking, ”complains Voitovich.
According to him, a similar problem with large hotels: “You will come to any large international network - Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and you will not be able to connect to the sales system. For this reason, the Russian tour operator can not give a good price for any decent hotel in the international chain compared to Booking. He does not even have the ability to connect to this system. And Booking gives good prices and conditions to the Russian consumer.
As a result, a foreign corporation controls already 70% of the Russian hotel booking market. Such a situation Voitovich considers "absurd" - and proposes to prohibit Booking.com.
It is obvious that it is impossible to close a foreign site, but it is possible to block access to it from the territory of Russia, as well as to take some other measures. For example, Voitovich suggests that Booking.com prohibit the possibility of booking Russian hotels for customers located in Russia.
Rosturizm considered the proposal rational. “We consider it necessary to seek the opinion of professional professional public associations regarding this proposal, and therefore a corresponding request will be sent to their address promptly,” the Rostourism spokesman told RBC.
However, many experts believe that the proposal Voitovich too radical, because Booking.com provides a very high-quality service and is very popular among Russians. In fact, if it is closed, there will be no one to occupy a niche.
The Booking.com service was founded in Amsterdam in 1996, provides online hotel booking services worldwide and is owned by the American company Booking Holdings.
According to SimilarWeb for April 2018, Booking.com ranks 79th in the global ranking of sites and 67th among Russian users. In April, the site Booking.com recorded 420.5 million visits from desktops and laptops. The largest traffic was provided by Russia (7.49% of the audience). The second place after Russia is occupied by the USA with 6.85% of all calls.
Although experts doubt the possibility of blocking Booking.com, but still pay attention to the truly monopolistic position of this service, which is becoming dangerous. The company is not a tour operator, but has already become a very large player in the global and domestic hotel markets. Now its commission reaches 18%, which is comparable to the remuneration of a major tour operator: “As the market share increases, the size of the Booking.com commission will most likely only increase, we are interested in the Russian hotel services market being competitive,” said Sergey Shpilko, President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry.
UPD 05/23/2018 12:40 Moscow Time The Ministry of Culture
officially explained why Rostourism instructed to work out the issue of limiting Booking.com activities in Russia: “The Ministry of Culture has no authority to ban the use of the Booking.com service, as well as plans for any regulation of its activities in the Russian Federation. Moreover, the agency is categorically against such a formulation of the question in principle, ”said Olga Yarilova, director of the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture of Russia. - In strict accordance with the Federal Law “On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation” of 05/05/2006 N 59-FZ, as well as a model regulation of interaction between federal executive bodies, approved by Government Decree No. 30 of January 19, 2005, the Ministry of Culture sent to department (Rosturizm) said citizen's appeal [about limiting the activities of Booking.com] to prepare a response. This is an absolutely standard procedure that is technical. ”
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