The number of Russian travel agents might drop by 15% by the start of the summer season 2010, Kommersant claims.

Judging by the data provided by Rostourism, 649 Russian Federation-based companies were unable to renew their financial guarantees recently. These are mostly small provincial operators that cannot afford to pay the high insurance fees of 280,000 to 300,000 RUR a year.

342 out of these 649 travel agents mainly deal in providing services to foreigners coming to Russia, 74 companies sell tours abroad to Russian citizens, and 233 agents do both.

The operators were supposed to have renewed their financial guarantees by April 2, 2010, Kommersant says. The Tourism Business Act states that a tour operator must renew the guarantees and inform Rostourism about the procedure within three months of the current guarantee’s expiry date.

Now Rostourism reports that among the unfortunate companies are OOO YAVA Express, OOO Zima-Leto, and OOO Inna Tour.