The Ministry of Culture said that against blocking Booking.com: "Nothing threatens the work of the service"

The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation does not have the authority to ban the Booking.com service and plans to regulate its activities. This was reported by the website of the Ministry with reference to the director of the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture Olga Yarilova. Thus, she commented on media reports about the possible blocking of a popular hotel rooms aggregator in Russia.

The fact that the ministry sent a letter to Rostourism with an instruction to consider a proposal to ban the activities of the Booking.com online service in the Russian Federation on the eve of RBC. According to the publication, the order was given by the Department of Tourism and the regional policy of the Ministry of Culture. Rostourism on the territory of the Russian Federation on the territory of the Russian Federation, as he writes, should present his position on the territory of the Russian Federation until June 4.

"The Ministry of Culture of Russia does not have the authority to ban the use of Booking.com service, as well as plans for any regulation of its activities in the Russian Federation. Moreover, the department categorically against such a question in principle," Yarilova emphasized.

At the same time, she clarified that on the eve of the ministry, the head of the head of the group of companies "His Travel Service" by Sergey Voitovich with a proposal to initiate the restriction of Booking.com in the Russian Federation.

"The Ministry of Culture of Russia sent a citizen to the relevant department (Rosturism) to prepare a response. This is an absolutely standard procedure that is technical in nature," Yarilova said, once again emphasizing that "nothing threatens the work of the Boking.com service in the Russian Federation."

According to The Bell, its own tourist service is a contractor of Rostourism, and its leader is the creator of several analogues Booking.com in Russia.

"No Russian tour operator can compare with Booking.com because they have limited contracts with large international network hotels - Accor, Rezidor and Radisson. The Russian tour operator will not conclude such an agreement and get the conditions much worse. Therefore, Booking.com will now dominate the market," explained his initiative. Voitovich. In a conversation with journalists, he explained that he proposes to introduce a restriction on booking through Booking.com only Russian hotels and only for customers who are inside the country.

Recall that there were already complaints in Russia to the Booking.com service. In 2015, one of the Russian travel agencies, as well as the chairman of the Expert Council on Tourism at the Federation Council on Social Policy, Igor Fomin, complained of a complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service. The essence of the claims was that the service prohibits Russian hotels to set up lower prices for their services in other sales channels. The FAS ultimately did not find violations in the activities of the reservation service, because the fact of the dominant position Booking.com was not established on the Russian market.

The Booking.com service, founded in Amsterdam in 1996, belongs to the American company Booking Holdings.