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At the beginning of the week receptive companies to the UAE announced to their Moscow partners about the increase in price of visas to the country. From the 8th November a group of companies are processing travel visas for 10$ more than previously: standard – for 50$, urgent – for 80$. Besides, a fee is introduced for the traveling document for a child included in a parent’s passport – 30$, while earlier this service was free.
As a BANKO correspondent discovered, not all Moscow operators were informed of the new rule, nor was the situation was commented upon in the tourist representative office of the UAE in Moscow.
According to experts, the increase in price will not affect New Year’s packages but it will affect already paid for packages, for which additional money will have to be spent. Operators deal with solving this problem. 'We will not collect the missing sums of money from travel firms', says Marina Farnasova, a head manager of UAE destination in ‘Spectrum’. Dmitry Artyunov, general director of ‘Art-tour’ says: ‘If you count the amount of additional payment for the family of 2 adults and 2 children, it makes 80$. The profitability has been removed from the cheap tour bracket.’
The market participants were perplexed at why the prices jumped so unexpectedly, especially in the peak of tour booking for January and February.
