The Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of Serbia, Rasim Ljajic, stated that the insurance companies “Triglav osiguranje”, “Globos” and “Dunav osiguranje” expressed their readiness to continue issuing insurance policies to travel agencies, in order to provide licenses for their normal business.
Ljajic said that the issuance of the first policies to travel agencies is expected during the next week.
– We had a very constructive meeting with insurance companies, which, based on the criteria and standards they have defined, will continue to issue insurance policies to agencies that meet those conditions – said Ljajic. – Those three insurance companies sent letters to the agencies asking for data on business and balance sheets, and as soon as they receive that information, they will start issuing policies, which will, as before, be issued for a year.
The Minister added that talks with banks on activating bank guarantees as a second model, which should function in practice in the future, and enable the stability of the work of agencies and the safety of tourist trips, are in the final phase.
The Association of Travel Agencies of Serbia and the Association of Independent Travel Agencies of Serbia believe that individual policies are the best permanent solution to the problem of insuring travel arrangements through travel agencies. Representatives of these two associations stated that the solution they are implementing in many European countries has proven to be very good.
According to the president of UTAS, Marija Matijevic, the introduction of individual policies should not be perceived as something that would significantly increase the cost of travel arrangements.
Necessary help
Milos Lazarevic from UTAS pointed out that, if the problem with insurance policies and licenses for the work of travel agencies is not solved, a large number of employees in the tourism industry could lose their jobs. He appealed to the authorities to consider sectoral assistance to travel agencies, guides and carriers.
– That insurance can be nicely calculated and be an integral part of the price of the arrangement because, to be fair, the policies we pay now are ultimately transferred to the prices of the arrangements paid by the passenger – said Marija Matijevic, adding that in both in this case, the agency’s operating costs.
She stated that it would be good, in agreement with insurance companies, to extend the insurance policies with annexes for a while, say until the end of the year, and in the meantime to find a permanent solution, which, in the opinion of the mentioned associations, is an individual policy.
For Srdjan Ecimovic from ANTAS, an individual policy is the best way for the passenger to be maximally protected.
– Other solutions lead us in the wrong direction, and that also applies to bank guarantees, but many of us, if we had 200,000 euros as a guarantee, would not even do this job – said Ecimovic, Dnevnik reports.
