11/08/2019 16:48

Your purse may get checked on the Polish border.

[IMG=18510-4104] From the 1st of December 6, 2005 stricter rules come into force in relation to foreign citizens crossing the Polish borders. According to the data from the official site of Kaliningrad state TV and radio company, border guards received an order to check tourists’ medical insurance and money (at the rate of 27$ a day). The news, first of all, surprised the staff of Kaliningrad travel firms, many of which deal with bus tours to Poland due to the convenient location. These conditions for entering the company were in force since 2003 but in fact they were just a formality. Kaliningrad for the first time discovers serious measures of the Polish party, obliging tourist to show the necessary amount of money when entering the country. Nevertheless, according to the general opinion of representatives of local travel agencies, interviewed by a BANKO correspondent, the scrupulosity of the border guards should not considerably affect the demand and organization of tours to Poland. Yet the public of the travel industry is seriously worried about these inconveniences. It is explained by Svetlana Konopleva, managing director of ‘Svena-tour’ company: ‘Imagine how much time tourists will now have to spend on the borders if except passports their money will be checked’. ‘Tourists take money with them in any case but now we will provide some reserve sum for the leader of the group to stand by our clients’, said Lubov Kochetkova, director of ‘Universal-tour’ firm. Even more agitation is caused by problems with processing French visas which Kaliningrad operators used to receive from the French consulate in Moscow. About a month ago they were informed that the visa processing would be carried out in Saint-Petersburg. As a BANKO correspondent was told, this transfer caused a long process of accreditation of travel companies at the embassy and, as a consequence, documents for visas are not temporarily accepted from Kaliningrad travel companies. In the result tours to France appointed in December may be cancelled. BANKO will follow the development of events.