Arctic tourism was high on the agenda during last week’s International Tourist Forum in Arkhangelsk, which was attended by over 400 experts, travel agencies and travel industry officials from seven different countries.
According to Russian travel industry officials, Arctic tourism is becoming more and more popular as it remains one of the few exotic, largely unexplored areas of the world. Officials noted that there is a growing trend with other countries that possess Arctic territories to offer tours and visits to circumpolar areas, and Russia should be a part of this.
However, they will face a number of big problems if they are to catch up and make Russia a leader in Arctic tourism. Currently, only a very small number of travel agencies are offering Arctic tours in Russia, and the majority of these are nowhere near the expected demands of foreign travelers.
Interestingly, it was noted that the challenges faced with Arctic tourism are similar to those that Russian tourism faces in general. The country still fares badly as far as a travel destination, with only the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg being familiar to most foreign visitors.
One of the biggest items on the agenda at the forum was the development of a newly established national park in Russia’s northern region, known simply as the “Russian Arctic”. The park covers a massive 1.5 million hectare area, encompassing parts of Franz-Joseph Land, the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and Victoria Islands.
The Russian Arctic’s director, Roman Ershov, said the park should learn from the example of Norway’s Svalbard Islands, that country’s northernmost point, which receives around 60,000 tourists looking for an Arctic adventure each summer.
Ershov admitted that right now, the Russian Arctic only expects to see around 1,000 visitors, but hopes that this number will grow considerably once infrastructure is in place.
The biggest challenge, said Ershov, is the establishment of a border-crossing point at the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in order to make accessibility easier for tourists.