OREANDA-NEWS. August 08, 2008. The insurance company ROSNO continues making payments to those tourists who suffered from the non-performance by the tour operator DETOUR of its obligations under the tour product sales contracts, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

In compliance with the deadlines stipulated by law, ROSNO is consistently paying insurance compensations to those tourists who have furnished the insurance company with all documents evidencing the insured accident and the size of losses. As of July 30, insurance compensations have been paid to 29 tourists, totaling over 2.5 mln. roubles. All in all, about 6 mln. roubles of claims are accompanied with a full set of documents.

ROSNO will compensate the damage arising either in connection with impossibility of traveling due to the tour operator’s failure to provide the required documents (vouchers, tourist passes, or air tickets), or in connection with additional costs incurred by those who were already in Turkey, such as expenses on full or partial payment for their accommodation for all days of their stay, air travel, and transfer. The size of insurance compensations varies from 20,000 to 600,000 roubles. Such a variation can be explained with presence of several application categories (individual tourists and groups counting up to 10 people), as well as with the nature and size of additional expenditures.

"The aggregate value of financial claims supported by the required documents has already exceeded ROSNO’s obligations, specified in its contract with DETOUR as 10 mln. roubles, twofold. Therefore, it is already apparent that reimbursing costs to all tourists affected by the non-performance by the tour operator DETOUR of its obligations is unfeasible", comments Ms. G.A. Goulyaeva, head of ROSNO’s Liability Insurance Centre, adding that this is due to the fact that "under the current legislation, an insurance company has no right to reimburse tourists for the amount exceeding the insurance amount stipulated by the insurance contract. Other aggrieved tourists shall take legal action against DETOUR.

We believe that this case must be taken into account when making amendments to the Law „On the Principles of Tourist Activities in the Russian Federation“, in order to provide maximum protection of interests of all clients aggrieved in similar situations. In our opinion, it is necessary to extend the limit of insurance coverage under the tour operators’ liability insurance contracts from 10 mln. roubles to, at least, 50 mln. roubles. It can be done voluntarily, but, as practice suggests, tour operators are not inclined to acquiring policies with extended insurance coverage limit. Therefore, finding a legislative solution would make the liability limit commensurable with the serviced tourist flows".