Long-awaited summer has at last arrived, a time of holidays and trips when many people plan a visit to the Hermitage.
In view of the increased activeness of black marketeers, the State Hermitage advises visitors to obtain their tickets only through the official website tickets.hermitagemuseum.org, ticket machines and ticket offices located on the premises of its various museum facilities.
On the Internet, it is possible to come across a large number of websites engaged in the resale of Hermitage entrance tickets at prices higher than on the museum’s own official web portal. These include not only sputnik8.com, but also a large number of counterfeit mirrored sites, such as ermitazh.org, hermitagemuseum.ru, hermitage-museum.ru and more. Their “business model” is based on obtaining entrance tickets from the State Hermitage’s official site and then selling them on through their own versions.
Websites of this nature often circulate information that is simply untrue. One, for example, offers tickets with the indication that buying them allows the holder to bypass long queues. Meanwhile, the enterprising black marketeers are depriving would-be visitors of the right to return tickets if circumstances change that is envisaged when they buy through the official Hermitage website. The sites also offer guided tours conducted by people who not only lack the accreditation required to engage in guiding activities, but do not always possess the appropriate qualification and knowledge either. On the majority of such sites, tickets to the museum are sold with a considerable mark-up, supposedly for service. Meanwhile, that “service” often includes errors and miscalculations in reserving tickets: in the name of the particular museum facility, the date or time of the visit. That can lead to the ticket being rejected as the holder tries to pass through the turnstile. Online black-market ticket-sellers often charge for the tickets of children under 14 who have free-of-charge entry.
The State Hermitage itself, without any sort of intermediaries, makes all entrance tickets to the museum available through its own official website, its own ticket machines and ticket offices.
The unauthorized sale of tickets, season tickets and guided-tour tickets for events being held by museums is an administrative offence (under article 14.4.3 of the Russian Federation’s Code of Administrative Offences).
Within the limits of existing legislation, the State Hermitage is engaging in all measures available to the museum to counteract the unscrupulous resale of tickets:
- restricting purchases of ticket from one e-mail address to no more than 4 entrance tickets and no more than 5 guided tour tickets
- blocking electronic addresses that make purchases of large numbers of tickets online
- ending the period within which tickets can be refunded 3 days before the intended visit, with the aim of hindering touts (scalpers) from being able to return tickets that they have been unable to sell.
The State Hermitage is deliberately not introducing entrance tickets bearing the holder’s name, since such a measure would inevitably result in queues at the entrance to the museum facilities as tickets are checked against ID documents.
A major contribution to the struggle against black marketeering can be made by increased vigilance on the part of Hermitage visitors themselves. This kind of “trade” flourishes due to the simple law of the market: demand produces supply. If would-be visitors refuse to buy tickets from such resellers, this fly-by-night business will have to shut down, which will benefit both the museum community and the tourists themselves.
