Joint Forces Are Rescuing Russian Tourists from the Island of Hainan

The Russian and Chinese authorities are joining efforts to solve the problems of the Russian tourists who stayed on the island of Hainanagainst their will.
On December 7,the Irkutsk airline IrAero declared that it suspends flights to the cities of Haikou and Sanya. It did so because of the debt of tour operator "Travel Designers" working under the "Pearl River" brand. According to TASS, their amount of debt is $2.3 million.

As a result, about 1.5 thousand Russian tourists got stuck at the resort. At a meeting in the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation on December 10,IrAero promised to evacuate the people.
Meanwhile, representatives of Rostourism and Consulate General of Russia in Guangzhou went to Haikou. According to the Russian tourist department, on December 14 they held a working meeting with the Deputy Head of Hainan Tourism Committee Wang Liming. Members of the Russian delegation asked the Chinese party about their assistance in accommodation of the Russian tourists, allocation of additional slots for planes and solution of the problems connected with the reluctant violation of the Chinese migration legislationby the Russians.The PRCagreed to cooperate in solution of this problem.

"The Chinese partyreported that the regional government has held an interdepartmental meeting on coordination of actions of all structures aimed at the fastest settling of the critical situation,due to the need of rendering the urgent help to the Russian tourists –the clients of tour operator "Pearl River" staying at the Hainan Island," Rostourism says.

As a result, from December 12 to December 14, 1.2 thousand touristsfrom Kazan, Ufa, Samara and St. Petersburgwere taken back. It is supposed that such airlines as AzuraAir andPegasFly will take on evacuation. The Russian tourist department reported that they were planning to take out from Sanya city airport 958 peopleon December 15-16.