Aspects of competitiveness of the Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous districts as destinations of arctic tourism

Despite some intensification of the regional and local authorities, as well as the proactive position of some tour operators in the Arctic regions of Russia, as well as a general removal of focus to domestic tourism in connec- tion with domestic economic and political shocks of the past two years, real progress in the Arctic tourism in Russia is not so great. It's connected with the systemic and acute problems of the development of this macro region. Their resolution will take decades. In these circumstances, it would be better to talk about the need to focus efforts of states and municipalities, as well as of businesses in those regions that now have not just an abstract potential from the point of view of tourism resources, but the real competitiveness for doubling-tripling of tourist arrivals within five to seven years due to such social, economic and food elements of competitiveness: the positive dynamics of the regional economy, positive demographics, the adequacy of general investments and investments directly related to the tourism, relatively well-developed infrastructure, transport accessibil- ity, price competitiveness of tourism products (the latter in the current environment could be the ability to stay within 60-70 thousand rubles for a 7-10 days tour with budget excursion component). If we analyze the parameters together, as it seems to the authors, today we can speak about the special prospect and a fairly high level of domestic and international competitiveness of only two destinations in the Arctic - Nenets and Yama- lo-Nenets Autonomous districts. Within the presented work, the authors make arguments about what these two regions may be Arctic destinations of paramount importance, because they can actually achieve the ambitious goals for increasing the mass of domestic and inbound tourism in the Arctic in really foreseeable future.