Translated material
Thunderstorm in early May
A bankrupt travel agency left 600 Russians in India
According to the sad tradition that has developed in the domestic tourism industry, each seasonal peak of activity in the industry is marked by the collapse of some company. After it, only unpaid debts remain as a souvenir for clients and partners. The past May holidays were not without another scandal. Since April 28, the Moscow company Transshow has actually ceased its activities. Contracting firms are still trying to minimize the consequences of her departure. According to unofficial data, Transshow owed its partners in Russia and three other countries of the world a total of more than 600 thousand dollars. This sad situation once again revealed the fact that the system of financial and legal protection of consumer rights in the Russian travel industry remains, to put it mildly , imperfect.True, the partners of the bankrupt company showed enough responsibility this time so as not to shift the problem that arose onto the tourists who traveled abroad with the help of Transshow. These tourists were provided with a relatively conflict-free (as far as possible in such a situation) return to their homeland. Which is perhaps the only positive aspect in this unpleasant story. The general director and sole owner of Transshow, Valentin Ganin, took responsibility for what happened in the most decisive and terrible way. The partners are convinced that he committed suicide, although the investigation into the case continues and the official cause of Mr. Ganin’s death has not yet been named. Perhaps, during the investigation, an answer will be received to the question of why Transshow turned out to be financially insolvent.
After the news of Mr. Ganin’s suicide spread across professional circles, the main question arose: who and how would take home the tourists whom the bankrupt company had managed to send abroad. Most of these remain in the Indian resort of Goa.
The Russian consulate in Bombay (Mumbai), as stated in a report by the TURPROM information group, said: “Everyone who was supposed to fly on May 1 via the Transshow line to Moscow has departed. According to local laws, hotels do not have the right to demand from guests payment for accommodation, if they have in hand the service company vouchers described in the contract. After the intervention of the consulate, most hotels stopped detaining our tourists and issued documents in full. The police had to be called to those hotels that did not voluntarily comply with the requirements of the law." At the same time, back on April 29, the situation with Transshow tourists in Goa was critical: most hotels did not want to check out Russian tourists without immediate payment.
On April 29, Transshow announced its insolvency. The company was one of the main blockers of the charter program in Goa organized by UTE Megapolus group. The customer for the flights was UTE's subsidiary, the aviation broker Megapolyus Aviacharter. The bankruptcy of Transshow created serious problems for its partners. It turned out that the blocker, who closed up to 60% of the seats on the Indian program either through his own sales or with the help of partners, did not pay Aviacharter for the Moscow-Goa-Moscow flight on April 29 (it was operated by VIM-Avia), two flights on April 30 (VIM-avia and KrasAir), as well as two flights on May 9 and one on May 12. Moreover, at that moment there were more than 600 tourists of the Transshow company and its blockers with VIM-Avia and KrasAir tickets in Goa; their vacation ended on April 30 and May 1. The deposit made in advance by Transshow covered less than half the cost of transporting such a number of people.
In this situation, the customer of the flights, the Megapolyus Aviacharter company, assumed financial obligations to deliver tourists from Goa to Moscow, including clients of Transshow and its block companies. And in order to take tourists to Goa who bought tours with departures on April 29 and 30 from Transshow, the air broker organized an additional flight from April 30 to May 9. At the same time, companies that had signed contracts for blocks of seats with the Transshow company were offered to pay for the flight at a special price.
As the general director of UTE Megapolus group Eduard Kuznetsov told the online publication RATA-news, in order to ensure the removal of tourists from Goa, the company managed to obtain a loan of $200 thousand in two pre-holiday days. “Our financial relations with Transshow, as well as with others partners, there were only non-cash payments, we always make all payments through the bank. Therefore, they met us halfway and urgently opened a credit line,” says Mr. Kuznetsov. “We managed to cover approximately half of the funds received by selling tickets for an additional flight, and we will earn the rest. ".
Another charter program, the consolidator of which was the Transshow company - in Morocco (Agadir) - will be implemented to the previously planned extent, despite certain financial and organizational difficulties associated with this. This is what the block operators of this flight, Space Travel, Gotur, Flamingo, Cascade, Vand International and Collage, decided at a general meeting. Space Travel will now consolidate the program. As it turned out, the Transshow company only paid for the flight on April 30th.
According to an unofficial certificate that RATA-news received from the law firm Loyer, which is involved in settling Transshow cases, the bankrupt company owed its partners $250 thousand for Goa, $54 thousand for Morocco, $13 thousand for Tunisia and approximately 8--9 million rubles. insurance company. At the same time, the company’s office was rented, 16 rubles were found in the cash register, and 9 rubles in the current account. Of the equipment, two computers remained, which, when new, cost 22 thousand rubles. According to representatives of Loyer, in this situation it is pointless to initiate a labor-intensive procedure for official bankruptcy, so Transshow will simply appear in the registers, like many other non-existent companies.