Krasnodar, August 6 – Yug Times. The new resort fee is to be introduced experimentally next year in the Crimea and Sevastopol, Altai, Stavropol and Krasnodar regions. During the first year, the maximum sum is to be 50 rubles per person per day. Despite the authorities’ declared intention to improve the quality of resort business and its infrastructure, the fee is being strongly criticized by all resort market players.
“I am against the introduction of the resort fee,” commented Dmitri Bogdanov, General Director of the Znanie spa hotel in Sochi. “In this situation, the governmental structures have practically fully ignored the viewpoints of the tourist industry itself as well as of its numerous customers.”
According to Mr. Bogdanov, the law on resort fee is an extremely unfair legal act. Instead of increasing the efficiency of fiscal authorities, collecting more taxes and motivating the business sector to go out of the shadow, the government is imposing a new tax on those who are already playing a fair game and working transparently. Some tourist agencies also believe that introduction of the resort fee is untimely.
“The idea of such tax does have the right to exist, which fact has been proved by many popular resorts abroad,” said Sergei Strebkov, Director of Intourist’s Domestic Tourism Department. “But in this country you have to take into consideration that 50 to 100 rubles a day are a weighty factor that may become decisive when choosing the holiday destination. As a result, this fee may affect the demand, so the tourists may choose Turkey which is cheaper.”
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