The solution to the current problem of travel guarantees for travel agencies should, first of all, be sought in the agreement of agencies, insurance companies and the ministry in charge of tourism, through insurance policies, and not bank guarantees, as that would be complicated and still legally unfeasible, says Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Finance of the Belgrade Banking Academy, Branko Zivanovic.
Involving the banking sector in solving the problem that befell travel agencies is impossible to do quickly, because it requires legal changes and a lot of time for guarantees to be included in the business procedures of banks, Zivanovic told Tanjug.
Explaining why the replacement of the insurance company’s policy, which has so far been used as a bank guarantee, is currently difficult to replace with a bank guarantee, he states two reasons for that.
“The first is de jure, that is, the legal reason, because a bank guarantee is impossible in the event that there is no legal entity that will be its user, and individual passengers certainly are not. Even if it is solved, it remains a de facto problem, because in “Business procedures should have been created in a short period of time and this novelty should have been included in the legal acts of banks, and that requires at least three to six months,” Zivanovic points out.
He also states that in order to issue this guarantee quickly, the banks are looking for a certain collateralization, ie protection of themselves as creditors.
“If we wanted to solve this in a very short time, then even a mortgage would not be appropriate, but a cash deposit of 100 percent. If we know that the maximum insurance policy is around 400,000 euros, that would be the biggest number of agencies in Serbia, hardly could fulfill.”
He hopes that an agreement will be reached very soon between the agencies and the pool of insurance companies, as well as that the contracts on policies will be annexed, for a while, as he says, for, say, three months.
Zivanovic points out that travel agencies are certainly welcome in the banking sector, but for now, an arrangement to insure travel through bank guarantees would be expensive and takes time. He believes that this type of cooperation is realistic to expect only next summer.
The problem with the insurance policies necessary for the extension of the licenses for the work of travel agencies arose when the insurance companies decided to leave the business.
Therefore, travel agencies cannot renew their licenses that expired on October 1, so they do not sell package deals, but only individual services, such as tickets and accommodation in hotels with which they have a business-technical cooperation agreement.
At a recent meeting at the Ministry of Tourism, it was said that licenses would not be revoked from agencies, and it was agreed that the Association of Banks would make a proposal for a procedure for operational functioning and possible activation of bank guarantees, which would be incorporated into the new Rulebook on travel agencies.
The agencies also expect to possibly agree with the insurance companies that their validity of the policy with annexes will be extended for three months.
As the director of the National Association of Tourist Agencies of Serbia (JUTA), Aleksandar Senicic, told Tanjug a few days ago, the answer of the insurers is expected by Monday.
