Tour operators from Russia propose to block Booking
Sergey Voitovich, the head of the group of companies “Own Tourist Service” published an open letter addressed to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation with a request to study the possibility of including Booking hotel room aggregator in the package of counter-sanctions (restrictive measures).
The proposal to limit the operation of the booking system owned by the American company Booking Holdings (known as The Priceline Group until February 21, 2018) on the territory of the Russian Federation was made by the head of the Russian company in order to support business and the domestic tourism industry, and in response to anti-Russian sanctions.
Sergey Voitovich believes that Booking should be closed in Russia primarily because of the position of the monopoly, which this booking system received here. For many domestic hotels, the service has no alternatives, more than 70% of their sales are controlled by the American corporation.
S. Voitovich draws attention to the fact that the US company can collect and study information about tourists. In the case of a similar situation in the United States, the authorities there would force state institutions to refuse the services of a Russian company, as in the case of Kaspersky Lab.
In the full text of the letter, there are other arguments in favor of this initiative.
Photo and information: tourdom