Now the fourth stage of the tourist cashback program is underway in the country. The first one started a year ago. According to the Federal Tourism Agency, during the period of the program, more than two million people have used it, who have purchased vouchers and booked hotel accommodation for a total of about 35.5 billion rubles. At the same time, the amount returned was 6.7 billion rubles. The next stage of the tourist cashback started on June 16, 2021, according to the decision of the Federal Tourism Agency, the sales window was extended until August 31. But the fourth stream differs from the previous ones not only in its duration. It was this year that it became possible to return money for vouchers for both adults and children.
The United Russia party came up with this initiative in early May. Already on the 25th of the same month, the idea was supported by the President and the cashback program itself was immediately launched. Moreover, not only those who bought the vouchers after the announcement of the start of the action, but also those who did it earlier, were able to get 50% of the cost of the children’s camp.
“The president’s initiative to launch cashback for tourist trips to support the most affected industry was expanded at the suggestion of United Russia,” says Elena Shmeleva, head of the Sirius Educational Center and ONF member. – The President supported the idea to extend it to children’s summer holidays. Thus, 50% of the cost of a child’s voucher to a children’s camp is now compensated to parents on a card. This is the so-called cashback. The offer turned out to be in great demand. We have created a hotline to help Russians figure it out.
According to Shmeleva, ONF activists constantly monitor the implementation of the program and will do this until the very end of the summer. Until the summer is over, half a million families have the opportunity to send their children to camp.
“In fact, everything is being done so that children receive both developmental and health improvement programs, so that the development of an accessible communication environment for children does not stop during all these summer months, regardless of the family’s income,” says Shmeleva. – In this regard, the program is unprecedented and the services were very mobilized so that it was launched and continued its work. We see that the program was launched fairly quickly by all colleagues in the regions. Moreover, 55 regions launched an information campaign on how to fill out an application, what the program is like, how the funds are returned, and answer questions related to different situations. For example, what to do if a voucher was paid with two cards or a part of it was compensated by the company. That is, there are constantly questions that are commented on, and thanks to this, the program continues to develop and the number of requests decreases.
As the employees of the hotline on children’s cashback in the ONF told MK, almost 24 thousand calls have been received on the line since its launch. The most frequent questions are about how the program works, that is, how and at what time the payments are received, what is needed for this.
The number of calls varies greatly depending on the day of the week. The main surge is observed closer to the weekend, apparently, on weekdays, people have no time to deal with this issue. The trend is very clear. There was a big splash when it was announced that the money could be returned to those who bought vouchers for children before the program was announced.
“On May 25, we launched a hotline,” Shmeleva comments. – Many vouchers have already been purchased, many plans have already been outlined, and therefore it is great that she was able to earn money so quickly to help her parents. If we cannot solve some problem ourselves, then we consult with colleagues from Rostourism, from the Ministry of Education, and thus we can be sure that everyone can apply for a cashback.
Let us remind you that to get cashback automatically, you need to buy a voucher from May 25 to September 15, 2021. Refunds are made in the amount of 50% of the cost, but not more than 20,000 rubles. An application for its registration must be written before October 20 and only after the end of the shift. The shift must take place from May 10 to September 20, and the child must be under 18 years old at the beginning. The refund will be only for the rest in the camp, which is included in the register – these are health camps with a round-the-clock stay, their list is directly on the State Services in the application form and on the Rostourism website. A separate application is written for each child and each shift, there can be as many as you like.
Newspaper headline:
The number of parents who sent their children to camps exceeded all expectations
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