Italian visa collapse continues: consulate for more than a month can not establish normal work
Massive delays in issuing visas to Russian tourists by the Italian Consulate in Moscow, which began in mid-May, have not been eliminated by the diplomatic mission, despite loud promises. Moreover, they have become systemic, causing huge economic damage to Russian tour operators, and leading to large financial losses for independent tourists. As a result, in the wake of negative media reports about the visa mess, Italy may well lose some of its potential Russian tourists this summer, who will switch to alternative destinations where consulates are more loyal to travelers. For example, Spain or Greece...
“The consulate continues to delay the issuance of visas to Italy. Every day, almost every tour operator specializing in Italy does not get from several passports to several dozen. It is obvious that in the month since these delays began, the number of visas not issued on time has long exceeded several thousand. Even tour operators making individual tours have hurt, and it is not even necessary to talk about the damage to those who specialize in mass tour packages, Irina Tyurina, a press secretary of the PCT, told the correspondent of the Turprom information group.
As a result, couriers of tour operators, as well as independent travelers, are forced to stand in line at the door of the Italian visa center every day until midnight. At the same time, tour operators are trying to act in relation to their tourists as standard - they shift tours and departure dates. “Hotels generally move without fines, but tickets without fines are almost impossible to move. Therefore, many of them burn up, and they have to take again, bearing huge financial losses, which the market is not even possible to assess, the source added.
Irina Lartseva, a listener of Business-FM radio, got into a typical situation for these days, whose flight flew to Italy long ago without her, and the tourist still haunts the thresholds of the visa center and the Italian consulate: I signed up for the submission of documents on May 25. Knowing about the problems, I wrote a letter to the visa center clarifying the deadline for consideration of documents. I was told that from 4 to 6 days I will get a visa. The earliest recording was on June 7, I handed over the documents that day, once again asked the employee about the situation. He said the consulate promised to fix the system. Everything should be okay. On the receipt I have the date of obtaining a visa on June 13. On Monday morning, June 17, I called the visa center. The call center told me in a disparaging voice that the deadline for consideration was at least two weeks in turn. I went to the consulate this morning. Here I encountered a lot of people who have different stories, but the result is the same: the system does not work, and once the system works, the visa will be printed; there is no sense in waiting. According to Irina, some people were told that their documents were not found at all. After waiting until late at night, the listener of Business-FM never received the documents. On Tuesday, she returned to the visa center, but there is no result yet.
On June 6, the PCT sent a letter to the Italian ambassador asking him to resolve these issues. In response by e-mail, the Union received confirmation of the receipt of this letter by the diplomatic mission, while the embassy promised to give detailed explanations in its response. “However, there are still no answers or explanations, and visa delays continue. The scale of the problems is increasing and decreasing, but by and large, nothing has changed - the Italians still massively continue to disrupt tours, explained Irina Tyurina.
Author of News: Peter Borisov
Source: tourprom.ru