Reviews of tour operators. The most reliable tour operators. Tour operator rating. Why are travel agencies closing? How to identify a reliable tour operator How to check a tour operator before buying a tour

How to check the reliability of the tour operator? This question has become especially relevant for Russian travelers in last years... This is not surprising - reports that another travel agency announced the cessation of activities, while its clients are waiting in vain for check-in at the airport or trying to move into a hotel abroad, appear in the media more and more often. At the same time, the "heroes of the reportage" are not just one-day companies, but well-established, well-known brands. What should a Russian tourist do? Is there some kind of reliability that you can focus on?

What is the problem?

To understand that the precedents covered in the media reflecting the bankruptcy of the players in the tourism market are not coincidences, but a systemic problem, let us turn to expert statistics presented in a number of sources. More than a dozen tour operators filed for bankruptcy in 2014, and from this experienced difficulties with organizing recreation for more than 50 thousand tourists.

Organization "Tourpomosch" was forced to evacuate from different countries more than 35 thousand people who were left, apparently without a place in the hotel and the plane, ordered from a travel agency. Of course, these numbers may seem quite small compared to the indicator reflecting total clients whom Russian tour operators served in 2013, namely 10 million people. However, in absolute terms, they seem to be quite eloquent.

Reliability in motion

One of the criteria that can become a guideline in how to check the reliability of a tour operator, experts call active business development. If a company does not stand still, develops, promotes its brand to other cities, then it, most likely, has significant financial reserves, market analysts believe. Another indicator is the emergence of new services, interesting and unusual excursion programs in the structure of the tour operator's services.

Effective means reliable?

Some market analysts suggest meeting operators "by their clothes". An indicator of the company's solvency can be, for example, an expensive office in the city center, high-quality repairs in it. Another indirect indicator is a functional and user-friendly website, the production of which cannot be cheap.

Large selection ahead of time

Another criterion noted by market analysts is the ability to book tours for a long time. This suggests that the company has a good set of connections in the industry - with hotels, airlines, various intermediary structures, offering the client a wide range of choices.

The business model of reliable tour operators presupposes a significant diversification of the firm's relationship with partners, experts say. This is useful not only from the point of view of forming a proposal for customers, but also in terms of the availability of backup moves in case some counterparties experience difficulties.

Charter to the sea

A number of experts have a negative attitude to the practice when travel agencies send clients on vacation through charter flights. A much more reliable option, analysts say, is when the flight is operated on a regular schedule. And therefore, if a client is wondering how to check the reliability of a tour operator, then it will be useful to look at the model of the company's relationship with airlines.

Narrow specialization

Some market analysts consider the narrow specialization of a travel agency to be a significant criterion. Which can be expressed, for example, in working with one geographic area, country or subject of tours. Despite the fact that they have immeasurably large financial capabilities in comparison with the average players, the latter, at the same time, can successfully fight with leaders in certain niche segments and even lure customers to themselves. At the same time, people will receive an appropriate level of service.

Payment in advance

Among the most common problems in Russian tourist market - refusal or unexpected lack of operator resources to pay for airline services and book hotels. The client of the company, being already literally at the airport, learns that he cannot check in for the flight due to the fact that the ticket has not been paid for by the tour operator. A similar situation can arise when checking into a hotel. To avoid such cases, experts advise to deal with tour operators who guarantee advance payment for the services of the respective counterparties.

But even if the promises are made by the company, experts say, the tourist, before leaving, should still call the hotel or the airline to make sure that the reservation has been paid. This information is not secret, and such checks are not prohibited. At the same time, it is important to make sure not only of the fact of payment for the ticket and space in the room, but also to check everything according to the dates, as well as to make sure that the seat on the plane is confirmed not only for the flight there, but also back.

Abroad will help

According to a number of experts, a significant criterion for the reliability of a tour operator can be considered the fact of ownership of shares in firms by foreigners. This may indicate, in particular, better conditions for lending - rates abroad are lower, the attitude of banks is in some cases more loyal. For foreign investors, the Russian tourist market is attractive - it is growing, our travelers, moreover, are ready to spend more money on trips than many Europeans. And therefore, the share of foreign partners in the equity capital of Russian tour operators can be significant.

Is the state on the alert?

There is information that Russian lawmakers are currently preparing quite promising amendments to the Federal Law "On the Basics of Tourist Activity", which may introduce additional rules regarding the work of tour operators. It is expected that the final phase of their consideration by the authorities will be in November-December 2014. What's new in the law?

First of all, the threshold for companies entering the Register of Tour Operators will be increased. Mandatory criteria can be, in particular, the provision of correct financial statements (and accompanied by the results of an audit), as well as the provision of information regarding the personal top officials of the company. Another criterion of a financial nature, which may become mandatory, is the availability of bank guarantees from tour operators working with charter flights.

It is assumed that a new system will be introduced, within which the liability of travel agencies is insured. In particular, we are talking about deductions of fixed amounts for each tourist to special funds, the funds from which are supposed to be used in case of problems.

Authority powers

Probably, the powers of Rostourism will expand in the field of control and supervisory functions (including in the direction of initiating audits). If violations are revealed in the activities of the operator during inspections, he may be excluded from the Register. Outside of which the travel agency, in accordance with the law, cannot legally work. This means that her activities will be considered as a criminal offense in the form

What is this Registry?

Above, we said that tour operators can legally conduct their work only if their brand is present in the official Register. What does it mean?

Activities outside of "accreditation", as we said, are illegal. The registry operates on federal level... Tour operators or firms registered in a small provincial town must meet the criteria determined by the state.

The corresponding Register is state. It appeared in 2007 as a system for assessing the reliability of travel agencies by specialized agencies. The main criterion at the moment is the level of financial support for activities. If it is sufficient, then the travel agency enters the Register. Now the list of operators "accredited" by the state includes several thousand companies. In addition to the fact that the Register performs the function of controlling the admission of organizations to the segment of tourism activities, it serves as a reference point for various contractors of operators - primarily insurance companies.

The registry is required by law

Many tourists, meanwhile, do not know that this Register exists. Although, as experts note, most of those firms that caused inconvenience to their clients had the appropriate "accreditation" for themselves. And therefore, market analysts believe, the Register in its current format is not an indicator. However, it may become such after the adoption of large-scale amendments to legal actsregulating the tourism industry.

Online facts

How to check the reliability of a tour operator using online analytics? It is possible. Moreover, many Russians prefer to identify conscientious travel agencies just using the Internet resources. It is quite acceptable, having studied the rating of tour operators in terms of reliability, also study online sources of information.

The first thing you can use is website analytics services. With their help, you can investigate the "virtual representation" of any tour operator for citation, number of visitors and other indicators that indicate brand promotion in the online space. However, it should be borne in mind that a significant percentage of traffic on the site can be generated artificially. Therefore, the study of site statistics is only one of the possible tools that it is better to supplement with others.

Such as, for example, the study of reviews - on travel forums, in the relevant sections of the operators' websites, on the portals of booking systems, etc. That is, the opinions of people who have had real experience of interacting with certain tour operators, trips on relevant programs and using various services of companies. However, there is one, and quite obvious, nuance - reviews, as well as traffic, can be fake, paid for.

An alternative to the opinions of users can be the ratings of "promoted" experts in their blogs. The main plus is that it is unlikely that they will be paid for (and if so, then, most likely, the author will not greatly praise the travel agency with which he in reality had a negative experience of interaction). Among the minuses - the opinions of different experts can be very dissimilar, even opposite.

National quality standard

A possible guideline when choosing a tour operator may be information about the regalia received by him, reflecting the company's success in the industry. These include, for example, the Travel Russian Awards. As part of this event, tour operators are determined, which the expert commission considers to be among the most reliable.

The winners of the rating for 2013 are such companies as Tez Tour, Biblio Globus, Pegas Touristic. That is, mainly, these are the market leaders, the largest operators. Unconditional leadership, having received 33% of the votes, was secured by Tez Tour. This confirms one of the criteria we have named - the scale of the firm's activities and, as a consequence, the presence necessary resources to fulfill obligations to tourists. In addition, the reputation factor plays a role. Market leaders want their clients to be confident that they are reliable tour operators.

The award was jointly established by Travel Russian News magazine and PR2POINT company operating in the market marketing communications... The methodology for determining the winners is based on the tourists themselves who used the services of the operators. The Russians, thus, themselves make up the rating of tour operators in terms of reliability. At the same time, it should be noted that initially the respondents are offered a list of 30 pre-selected companies, at least this was the case in 2013. Perhaps the new rating of reliability of tour operators, 2014, which is likely to be the magazine, will allow other criteria for the formation of lists of companies that claim to be highly appreciated by society. The sample of respondents in 2013 amounted to 1600 people from 205 settlements representing all federal districts. The question to the respondents sounded like this: choose three Russian tour operators, which, in your opinion, are the most reliable.

There are, of course, other industry rankings, perhaps less known to the common man in the street. There are also regional "elite lists". Many industry portals are trying to make a rating on the reliability of St. Petersburg, the Far Eastern regions. The criteria can be selected based on the specifics of doing business in certain cities.

In the summer of 2014, many travel agencies were closed, while not fulfilling their obligations to their customers. The prospect of being stuck abroad without help from your tour operator is, to put it mildly, daunting.

But if money for a vacation abroad was found, then no fears will force you to choose a summer house in a neighboring village instead of the sea coast, right? This means that you need to choose the right tour operator, and take into account different parameters.

What constitutes the reliability of a tour operator

In fact, there are many parameters by which you need to evaluate a company before buying tickets from it. Here are some of them.

Number of destinations the tour operator works with

A crisis can occur in any tourist destination - an unstable political situation, military conflict, natural disasters. The more destinations a tour operator can offer instead of an unavailable one, the less he risks.

Where to find out? This information can be found on the website of the tour operator or by contacting his consultants by phone.

Availability of own host companies in different directions

The host is the travel company in the country where you are going on the tour. It is this company that books and pays for the hotel, provides transfers from the airport to the place of check-in and arranges excursions.

If the tour operator has its own host company in the country of destination, the chances of getting quality service on the spot are greatly increased. In addition, such a company is less likely to go broke, since it can also make money on tourists from other countries.

Where to find out? On the official website of the tour operator or by contacting him by phone.

Agreement with airlines

Often, most of the tour cost is air travel. If a tour operator cooperates with several airlines, has blocks of seats in different directions, or has its own charter flight, it will be able to offer more flight options.

Where to find out? As a rule, tour operators post information about cooperation with airlines on their website. Check the sections of the site related to the company's partners.

Insurance company reliability rating

If the tour operator cooperates with a reliable insurance company, in case of bankruptcy, it will not revoke the license and you will receive compensation for damage.

Where to find out? You can find the company on the RIA Rating website.

These are not all the parameters by which you can evaluate a tour operator, but you can hardly find them all on your own. In addition, you must admit that this is a rather long and dreary business. You can make it easier - to use ready-made reliability ratings of tour operators.

For example, a similar rating is provided by the Travelata.ru hypermarket of tours. Anyone can use it, regardless of the desire to buy a tour or authorization on the site.

Let's see what this rating of reliability of tour operators is based on, what criteria are used to evaluate tour operators and what degree of objectivity can we hope for.

What makes up the Travelata.ru rating

So, each tour operator, whose offers are posted on the site, is evaluated according to 10 indicators. The list of indicators includes the tourist destinations already mentioned above, their host companies, partner airlines and reliable insurance companies. And here is a list of additional indicators (and screenshots of the current rating of tour operators):

Availability of hotels under warranty

The travel agency can conclude a contract with the hotel by purchasing the rooms in advance. In this case, the booking on the tour operator's website is confirmed instantly, and the prices for the hotel are somewhat reduced.

Reseller or not

If there is another link in the scheme between the service provider and the client, services become more expensive, while reliability, on the contrary, decreases.

Amount of financial guarantees

This point concerns protection against bankruptcy: the higher the financial guarantees of the tour operator, the better the company is.

Number of travel agencies under the brand of the tour operator

The more travel agencies, the larger and more reliable the tour operator.

Belonging to a large international holding

If a tour operator is part of a large holding, he is less likely to be left without clients, and tourist destinations he usually has more.

Dissatisfied customers

This is one of the easiest points to evaluate a tour operator. If you just have bad reviews, that's okay: after all, you can't please everyone. But if there are more of them, then trust in the tour operator is gradually lost.

Each category is rated from 0 to 10 and rated from the largest tour operators. But where does the information about the number of host companies come from, the redeemed places in hotels and the reliability of the insurance company?

Sources of information for the ranking

But it would not be very correct to use only this information, so the data for the rating are taken from other sources as well.

Information from the websites of airlines, where you can learn about cooperation with tour operators, the Unified Federal Register of Tour Operators, where any user can find a company and find out the amount of its financial support.

In addition, data from the RIA Rating agency are used to assess the reliability of insurance companies, and information from the professional travel portal Tourdom.ru.

The result is a very diverse set of sources by which a tour operator can be judged fairly.

The choice is up to the client

If the reliability rating of a tour operator really drops sharply - many directions are removed, the number of partners among airlines decreases, the number of negative reviews grows - it becomes clear that the tour operator's work is approaching the end. In such cases, the loser company disappears from the hypermarket of tours.

But, if things are not going so badly, the company stays on the site, and then each user decides for himself: to trust a not very reliable tour operator and buy a ticket for a lower cost or spend a little more, but ensure himself reliability above 90 points.

For example, in 2014, Coral Travel received the highest score: the tour operator scored 98 points out of 100 possible. The indicators of TUI Russia are slightly lower - 96 points, and the third place went to TezTour with 94 points.

You can remember reliable tour operators, view their official sites and bookmark them in your browser for future reference. But if you are not going on tour soon, then it is better to just remember where you can see this rating.

It is not always possible to plan your vacation trip yourself. Air travel, hotel booking, excursion program - all this is subject to travel agencies, which vying with each other promise a wonderful vacation for any budget. The tourist can only choose a middleman for the realization of his dream of the perfect trip. But in order for only positive memories to remain about the vacation, one must responsibly approach the choice of not only the tour, but also know how to check the travel agency.

Register of travel agencies. The Union of Tour Operators of Russia created a general register of travel organizations, which is freely available at reestr-ta. ru. By registering on this site, a representative of the tourism business must provide not only all their official documents, but also contracts with tour operators and hotels. This will testify to the actual activities of the travel agency in the market of tourist services. The presence of a national register makes it easier to choose a travel agency. Although registration of the relevant enterprises in it is voluntary.

An agreement with a travel agency. When concluding an agreement with a travel company, it is important that its name, address and bank data match what is written in the Certificate of Registration of the company, which is better to familiarize yourself with in advance. It will not be superfluous to look at the Certificate of Conformity. The director himself or another person with the appropriate authority must sign the contract with the tourist. The contract itself must contain a clause on the financial responsibility of the travel agency. This can be reserved bank funds or a liability insurance contract from a company that provides tourist services... The presence of such an item confirms the reliability of the travel agency.

Reviews of tourists. You can find reviews on the work of any more or less well-known travel agency or tour operator on the Internet. It is necessary to distinguish between these two concepts. The tour operator is directly involved in the creation of a tourist product - a tour. And travel agencies sell products from different tour operators. Moreover, there will be no difference in price for clients when paying for a trip with an agent or operator. Of course, information on forums and portals for travelers will not give a 100% guarantee. But after reading different opinions about the work of the company, you can get some idea about it. Learn about the pros and cons of the tours offered. Then the choice and purchase of the tour will be more deliberate.

Work experience of the travel agency. The length of service of the travel agency is of great importance. Constant customer base is accumulated in about four years. The presence of regular customers, whose reviews can also be found on the Internet, good sign... The long-term work of the company can be evidenced by the retained license, which was canceled in 2007. Many, long-term and successfully operating enterprises, hang it out for all to see in a frame. Then there will be no doubt about the long-term work of this travel agency.

Employees. Tour managers are of great importance for the company's image. A travel agency with a good reputation will have employees competent in all matters. You need to ask them in detail about hotels, resorts and countries. Competent and clear answers will help not only to give preference to this or that trip, but also to form an opinion about the travel agency as a whole.

In late summer and early autumn of this year, 2014, a lot of noise (and not only in the circles of avid travelers) was caused by an epidemic of bankruptcies and subsequent closings of travel agencies. Of course, we simply cannot pass by this topic, which is so exciting for travel lovers. What are the most reliable tour operators, what are the real reasons for the bankruptcy of travel agencies - all these questions worry travelers on the eve of the holiday season.

Moreover, not only little-known travel agencies perished, but also real veterans of this market, who are still seemingly prosperous. It all started with the St. Petersburg travel companies "Neva" (one of the oldest russian market in general) and Expo-Tour, then Intaer, Labyrinth (the largest travel agency at that time) and Wind Rose Mir perished.

All of them were unable to fulfill their obligations to their clients, thereby disrupting vacations for tens of thousands of Russians, and for many - completely ruining the pleasure of traveling. In particular, 6,000 clients of Neva and as many as 25,000 customers of Labyrinth, the leader of the Russian market, are stuck abroad.

I would not like to be in their place, right? So, you need to understand the reasons for what happened, how to distinguish a reliable travel agency from an unreliable one ... and is it worth using their services at all in today's situation?

What do tour operators themselves say on this topic?

Representatives of bankrupt tour operators, and in general people from this business, basically name two reasons for what is happening.

1. A sharp drop in the ruble exchange rate, which significantly reduced the opportunities for Russians to relax abroad. Indeed, one way or another, this factor simply could not but affect the travel package market. But this is not the first time the ruble has fallen, and in other sectors of the economy a similar trend is not observed at all, although a sharp rise in the exchange rate of the dollar and euro hits almost any business. Probably, the ruble is not to blame.
2. The second reason that travel agencies declare is a decrease in demand for travel abroad due to the complicated political situation. The ban on such trips for a number of security officials and officials, as well as the deliberate boycott of certain destinations by tourists, allegedly affected. The figure is called 30% - supposedly, exactly how much the flow of Russian tourists going to Europe has decreased.

Let's say, but is Europe so important for tour operators? Could a 30% decrease in demand for tickets to it really hit the strongest companies in the market? After all, many other directions have not disappeared ... moreover, more massive, and highly relevant for the winter.

And most importantly: the political situation around our country flared up much earlier than the companies began to close, and the dollar and the euro also rose in price for a long time. Firms began to close much later.

Some people talk about some kind of global “redistribution” of the market, but this hardly corresponds to the real state of affairs: from the death of strong companies, small ones benefit more than those other serious market players. Loss of customer confidence in leading tour operators is simply not profitable for them.

So what's the real deal?

Reasons for the bankruptcy of travel agencies

Many experts are quite open about the real reasons for the collapse of the Russian tourism business. These reasons lie in the very scheme by which he worked for many years.

Actually, travel business in Russia it was a kind of "financial pyramid". Roughly speaking, from the money paid for the tours by new clients, tour operators paid debts to partners for tours organized earlier.

As a result travel companies faced the need to either take out loans or cut prices in the hope that competitors in an oversaturated market would not be able to survive. At the same time, it is important to take into account that operators are obliged to redeem places in hotels and air tickets from their partners in advance, and in large volumes - otherwise they simply will not cooperate with them.

This means that any similar business in russian conditions works at the expense of loans, and, as a rule, debts only grow. The situation was partly saved by insurance companies, but such a “soap bubble” simply cannot fail to burst sooner or later.

And it burst when several factors coincided at once: the insolvency of some insurers, the reasons mentioned above, which tour operators present as the main ones. And most importantly - the massive refusal of serious financial institutions to cooperate with the tourism business. It quickly lost its attractiveness in the eyes of investors.

Thus, the real reason for the collapse of travel agencies in Russia is the initially flawed system of organization this business in our country as a whole.

But it is not all that bad

At first glance, it might seem that in the current situation one cannot trust any Russian travel companies... Since the largest and most experienced go bankrupt - who can be called reliable? It would seem logical ... but, in fact, far from the truth.

With each bankruptcy, the supply in the market decreases, which at least partially brings the remaining companies out of a loss-making state. As a result, the more players leave the market, the more reliable are those travel agencies that continue to work. The biggest problem of the market was precisely the too large supply volume, which did not allow earning due to low prices.

Therefore, we can confidently say: the worst is over. What is happening is not so much a disaster as a natural process of self-regulation, ultimately leading to the best. Another thing is that it is not entirely clear how long it will last.

So, the situation and its reasons became clear to us. But what should a tourist do? How to protect yourself and minimize the risk of ruining your long-awaited vacation? We have something to advise you. More on this below.

How to check the reliability of a travel agency?

In fact, there are not many recommendations here. The main ones, perhaps, are only two - and both relate to the choice of a tour operator. After buying a voucher, you can already change little - perhaps buy additional insurance, however, in case of problems, this will save only your money, but not your nerves.

So, the first principle: pay attention not only and not so much to the reputation of the travel agency itself, but to the insurance company with which it works. It was the insurers unable to fulfill their obligations that drove the last nails into the coffins of the Labyrinth, Neva, and other seemingly unsinkable companies.

The problem of insurers whose liabilities exceed assets is a topic for a separate conversation, and alas, it is difficult for an ordinary tourist to find out how reliable this or that company is. But there is also a second tip.

It consists in using the services of companies that have monopolized the most popular areas, and at the same time offer not too low prices. The probability of bankruptcy of such travel agencies is extremely small, and in this case, you practically do not risk.

But this advice works precisely in the case when we are talking about a company operating in the field of mass tourism. Those who offer unusual tours are by definition at risk.

In general, as usual, the principle of "miser pays twice" applies. Above, we have explained in detail why forced dumping does not lead travel companies to anything good. This means that saving money when buying a voucher is not at all as profitable as it might seem.

Just in case, when concluding an agreement with an operator, pay attention to the terms of compensation in case of bankruptcy. If something like that is not spelled out in the contract, this in itself is a reason to think seriously.

However, one should not rely too much on the text of the treaty: as you know, what is written on paper in our country does not always coincide with what is happening in reality. After bankruptcy, getting some money from the company that ruined your vacation is extremely difficult. Better not to lead to this situation.

There is another option

In fact, you can completely eliminate such risks for yourself by making the most obvious decision: not to use the services of travel agencies.

We have already talked more than once about how to plan trips on your own, and why it is profitable - now there are even more arguments in favor of independent travel.

Of course, in this case, you take on all the hassle, but then you stop depending on the operator, which now, to be sure, do not inspire much confidence in any case.

You shouldn't sit at home

All of the above is not at all intended to intimidate tourists by convincing them to postpone travel abroad, or to finally finish off the tourism business, depriving it of its last clients.

And yet, "forewarned is forearmed." It seems to us that Russian travelers should know the truth about the situation in the tourist market, and they should be informed about how to behave correctly at this moment.

We hope we succeeded.

Check the reliability of the tour operator on the Rostourism website, find the history of its work on the Internet and carefully read the contract with the tour retailer - a travel agency - this is the minimum list of actions that every supporter of organized tourism must do, experts say. Otherwise, there is a high risk of joining the ranks of unfortunate tourists awaiting compensation for a spoiled vacation.

How to check the reliability of a travel agency? By following these steps. you can with a high degree of probability "sleep well" and wait for the date of your rest.

Step 1

Having contacted the travel agency, you need to find out the name of the tour operator who will organize the rest, and check the agency agreement between the travel agency that sells the tour and the tour operator. It is necessary to contact those travel companies that have not existed for a year or two, but, preferably, more than two years.

Step 2

It is necessary to check the information about the tour operator in the register on the regulator's website, that is, Rostourism (information about the tour operators of the Rostov region is on the Donskoy tourism website in the section). The main thing is to make sure that the tour operator has financial security on large sum (from 500 thousand rubles if it is a tour operator in Russia, from 10 million rubles if it is a tour operator in foreign countries). Financial guarantees indicate that the tour operator's liability is insured, and if something happens to the company, the insurance company returns the money spent to the tourists. In addition, a compensation fund has now been created - Rosturpomosch, which guarantees assistance to Russian tourists in emergency situations.

Step 3

After making sure that the tour operator is working legally, and his liability is insured, it is worth looking for information about him on the Internet. Read his story, reviews. It is imperative to look through the official website, it often contains documents and certificates confirming the legal activities of the company.

Step 4

If there is no doubt about the information about the tour operator, you need to carefully study the travel agency that deals with retail sales tours of this tour operator. You should know that there is no travel agency licensing in Russia. If a travel agency shows state licenses and certificates and says that these documents confirm its right to work, then at this stage it is already worth considering! At the moment, the All-Russian General Register of Travel Agencies has been formed. When choosing a travel agency, ask for its number in this Travel Agencies Register. Check validity registry number and information about the travel agency is possible.

Step 5

You need to pay close attention to the agreement that you sign with the travel agency. This must be a sales contract for the tour. Attention! The contract should not be for the provision of consulting services and not on one sheet. In the buyer's contract with the travel agency, the tour operator must be indicated, its number in a single federal register tour operators.

Also, do not save on travel cancellation insurance, in case of illness, visa problems and other force majeure circumstances. It is insurance that allows you to return the cost of the voucher, in case of unforeseen circumstances.