Problems with Mir cards, mainly in Turkey, may again return the increased popularity of “card tours” – t i.e. tours to neighboring countries for bank “plastic”, which normally work in most countries. Such an assessment of the situation from the travel market experts was presented by Kommersant.
According to the publication, about 53% of travel companies now receive requests for such tours. At the same time, 35% of market participants organize such tours, another 18% do not contact. And 36% of such requests were not received. Most often, Russians go to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Turkey for cards. Moreover, it cannot be said that the tourist industry “loves and appreciates” this segment, primarily because of the risks associated with possible restrictions on the issuance of cards to Russians by foreign banks
“The decision of Turkish banks to limit work with the Mir system may lead to a second wave of demand for this product,” Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, told Kommersant. Moreover, in the main, according to the expert, new interested parties will be from those 4 million people who travel to Turkey. However, in reality, everything will depend on the policy of foreign banks to open accounts for Russians. But there are risks – accounts may be frozen or subject to other actions, for example, in order to avoid secondary sanctions. There will also be interaction with the Russian tax authorities.
The countries will most likely not change. So far, the countries where “card tours” are sent are distributed as follows: Uzbekistan (48% of respondents), Kazakhstan (45%), Armenia (28%), Turkey (21%), Kyrgyzstan (17%), Belarus (14%), Georgia (10%) and Azerbaijan (7%). The average cost of “card tours” reaches 70 thousand rubles.
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