[IMG=18743-4359]
On the 27th of December a ‘BANKO’ correspondent investigated how travel agencies work in the off-peak period after all New year tours have been sold, most of tourists who celebrate New Year abroad have gone and new clients have not come yet. It was found out that at the moment travel market representatives are summing up the results of the year, discussing the latest news and advancing their professional skills. ‘We get acquainted with the prices for the new season, examine catalogues and new destinations’, said Ekaterina Kuznetsova, advertising manager of ‘Eurobusinesstour’.
According to experts, at present it is not right to say about low workload travel agencies have as the process of issuing documents for holiday tours is in the height. ‘There are no tourists in the office but there are ones who have not gone yet and they are the source of constant worry. For example, not all embassies have prepared visas and two charter flights were delayed, in one of the cases from 4 o’clock in the evening to 5 in the morning’, said Mikhail Faber, General Director of ‘ARFA’. Some tour operators have not decided when to issue documents for flights on the 2nd of January. Thus agencies doubt they can finish issuing documents by the 30th of December as they expected. Besides, there are some bookings for later dates.
Specialists anticipate a calm period for the beginning of January only. Some companies plan not to work during the holiday, others will turn to a special regime with only a few people being in the office. ‘According to the previous experience there are very few clients during this period. And those tourists who are abroad can always contact our mobile numbers that they all were given. I do not expect any surprises and plan a holiday until the 9th of January’, explained Margarita Zaruba, General Director of ‘Irigma-tour’.
