Motivation and cultural stereotypes as development factors of arctic tourism

The active development of the multi-faceted tourism industry in modern society, its involvement in the solution of the pivotal economic and social tasks have led to the fact that it becomes a key element in the social and economic development strategies of Russian regions. The relevance of the research into Arctic tourism is due to the need for an interdisciplinary study of this phenomenon in the cross-cultural context and evolution of values and cognitive aspects; the necessity for the sociological analysis of the current situation in the field under review, data comparison, and identification of common and specific problems. The authors discuss the results of a study on the opinions of young people about the symbolic value of Arctic tourism generating cultural stereotypes and travel motivations. The research has been conducted as a part of the Creative City Is a Territory to Be Developed, a strategic project of Murmansk Arctic State University. The authors prove that there is an obvious request for cultural tourism in the Arctic region, an interest in the art history of the circumpolar world. It is concluded that the forms and content of tourist programs should be updated.