'Our region’s travel organizations were awarded with the People’s Tourist Prizes on October 22, 2007. Not a single representative of Neva Yekaterinburg showed up at the ceremony, so the old rubber boot (a ‘prize’ given to the worst travel agent) will be sent to the company by post,’ President of Sverdlovsk Region Tourist Information Center Vadim Viner said to UrBC.

In the meantime, Director of Neva Yekaterinburg Andrei Pidzhakov says he’s never heard of the People’s Tourist Prize and is not going to attend any events of such sort.

'Neva Yekaterinburg was declared the worst travel agent for good enough reason, as we’ve received about fifteen complaints from a number of tourists. According to the data I have, Neva Yekaterinburg would charge its customers for insurance policies, but the customers never got either the policies themselves or their money back,’ Mr. Viner added.