The Arctic tourism in Russia

In September 2016, in the publishing house of NArFU named after Bulatov V.N., the scientific reference book "The Arctic tourism in Russia" was published [1]. This is a joint collective work of teachers, staff, undergraduates, students, experts of three largest universities in the country: Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov , Lomonosov Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, as well as the Arctic and the Antarctic Research Institute, the Russian State Hydrometeorological University, St. Petersburg State University of Economics and others. The edition includes the analytical part and a guide on the tourism products of the northern regions of the country in view of the fact that all subjects of the Russian Arctic (AZRF) are legitimate parts of the regions of the Far North of Russia.

In the first analytic part of the book, N.M. Byzova, Y.G. Gavrilov, E.I. Golubeva, L.N. Drachkova, K.S. Zaykov, L.O. Zelyutkina, A.V. Karpova, N.I. Kirasheva, E.M. Korostelev, V.S. Kuznetsov, Y.F. Lukin, E.E. Plisetsky, D.V. Sevastyanov, T.V. Sidorovskaya, N.I. Tulskaya, N.K. Harlampeva, M.V. Tsekina [1, pp. 6-117] explore basic concepts, tourist attractiveness of the Arctic islands, resource potential, prospects, opportunities and threats of the Arctic tourism, tourist rating of the Russian Arctic regions, problems of ecological tourism, training of specialists for the tourism industry. The following articles are published:

4- Kuznetsov V.S. View of a practician on the state and prospects of development of tourism in the west sector of the Russian Arctic.

4- Lukin Y.F. Tourism in the Arctic: conceptual approaches, the resources of the regions.

4- Sevastyanov D.V., Korostelev E.M., Gavrilov Y.G., Zelyutkina L.O., Karpova A.V. The International tourism and rational environmental management - the modern trend of the development of the Russian Arctic.

4- Sidorovskaya T.V. About the development and implementation of the master's program "Tourism in the Northern Dimension".

4- Harlampeva N.K. Theoretical and methodological ground for the development of tourism in the Arctic.

The concept of the Arctic tourism has almost become a part of tourist business management at the federal and regional levels, in the activities of tourist operators and agencies. If we talk about the Arctic tourism, both as scientific and practical definitions, the grounds for its selection are, firstly, peculiarities of the tourist natural, cultural and historical potential of the circumpolar space, a wealth of cultural and natural heritage, including UNESCO objects, the presence of a significant amount of Special Protected Natural Areas (SPNA), the northern sea waters, which allows us to offer the unique tourism products only here, exclusively in the Arctic. Secondly, the attractiveness (from the Latin “attrahere” — to attract) of the Arctic, its traditional image as Terra Incognita (from the Latin — "unknown land".) which always attracts, fascinates some of the people, travelers, tourists. The Arctic even in the XXI century remains unexplored land, a little-known to modern people. Though here it is more accurate to speak not about the earth ("Terra") in the literal sense, not about the earthly land, but about great water-territorial circumpolar (around the North Pole) space, which is covered by ice a lot of time during the year.

Thirdly, the satisfaction of spiritual and other needs, motivation, psychology of the person, seeking drive, strong impressions, the desire to purchase a special tourism product, radically different from the usual trips to Sochi, the Crimea, or to Cyprus, Italy. The Arctic tourism, even during a sea cruise on a comfortable ship is to some extent always extreme, it mentally checks human qualities in different situations. We should not close our eyes on the fact that extreme Arctic tourism positively characterizes the identity of the tourist in the perception of family and friends, colleagues. For example, when people say: "We have been at the North Pole, in the Arctic, on the islands where white bears live, have followed the Northern sea route. "

Fourthly, appearance and active promotion of the tourist business in the marketing, as well as such a strong and attractive brand as "Arctic tourism" in public opinion, its development as a sector of the economy, bringing income, profit, affecting the social and economic development of regions, the welfare of the population.

Fifthly , the international significance of the Arctic type of tourism, requiring the cooperation of resources and partnerships for its organization, safety and coordination of efforts in the harsh, often extreme conditions of the Arctic region.

All this taken together, allows to distinguish relatively the Arctic tourism from other types of tourism, as a unique tourist product demanded by consumers . This demand is limited mainly by a wallet of a client, the cost of sea cruises, transport inaccessibility of artifacts and the beauties of nature in the Arctic. Using business language and official conceptual definitions, we can say that the Arctic tourism - it is an internal and international tourism in the Arctic, which is a promising sector of the Russian economy. The Arctic tourism is defined as domestic for citizens permanently residing in Russia; or the inbound for foreign citizen not living in our country.

The Arctic international tourism at the same time quite reasonably covers the entire Arctic region providing complex of tourist services not only in the Russian Arctic, but also abroad. It is the North Pole, Spitzbergen (Svalbard in Norwegian), Alaska (the United States), Norway, Greenland, Iceland, Canada, islands and waters of all the seas of the Arctic Ocean. This broad localization of objects of the tourist business involves the international integration. The Arctic tourism is impossible to develop alone, as the provision of safe tourist trips in the extreme conditions of the Far North (high-latitude areas of the AZRF are complete parts of it) seems capital-intensive and requires specific knowledge and expertise. There is no doubt that the effective development of the entire Arctic tourism infrastructure, in spite of today's existing risks, is a factor of international partnership and tehnological modernization of the economy of the northern territories.

The Arctic domestic tourism is related directly only to the Russian Arctic, including the land areas in the regions and municipalities, included in the AZRF, and partially the waters of the northern seas in the Arctic Ocean in the exclusive economical zones (EEZ) of Russia. Cruise and other routes to the North Pole with this approach can be defined as international Arctic tourism products, although some visas and coordinations for them may not be required.

Tourist rating of regions of the Russian Arctic, made on the basis of the first national ranking of Tourism (2015), as follows:

As N.M. Byzova notes, the islands of Frantz Josef Land Archipelago and Novaya Zemlya in the Arkhangelsk region are very attractive. Unique natural landscapes, a diversity of sea ice, ice sheets, icebergs, the arctic rivers, varying flora and fauna form a unique tourist objects that can be considered as factors that influence on the formation of the tourist potential of the Arctic territories.

Golubeva E.I., Tulskaya N.I., Tsekina M.V., Kirasheva N.I. (Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov) considering the problems and prospects of development of ecological tourism in SPNA in the Russian Arctic, propose the creation of united terminology database for the concept of "ecological tourism", distinguish its promising aspects, present two maps of national parks and reserves in the RF. Considering the Arctic in terms of tourism development, the authors evaluate the specifics of eco-tourism in the region, which includes: extreme climatic conditions (seasonality of tourism products); low transport accessibility, as a consequence, the high cost of tours; poor quality of information on ecotourism in the Arctic region; visa issues for foreign tourists; lack of guaranteed tourism demand, as a consequence, low interest of travel agencies; high vulnerability of the Arctic ecosystems.

Kuznetsov V.S., one of the founders of the National Park "Russian Arctic", the author of a number of scientific and educational works on the history of the discovery and development of the Arctic Frantz Josef Land Archipelago and Novaya Zemlya, gives assessment of tourist activity in terms of the developing sector of the economy, as a result of increased interest of people to rest and travel at the present stage. He suggests the project of the Concept of tourism development in the national park "Russian Arctic" and the state reserve of federal importance "Franz Josef Land".

Sevastyanov D.V., Korostelev E.M., Gavrilov Y.G., Zelyutkina L.O., Karpova A.V. (St. Petersburg), considering the current problems of recreation and international tourism in the Arctic, analyze foreign experience of recreational management of natural resources and social and econimic role of the development of tourist and recreation areas in the polar latitudes in today's conditions of climate and landscape changes, the reasons for the lack of development of tourism resources in the Arctic Russian sector, prospects for the development of infrastructure and transport provision of tourist access to the polar regions.

In the reference section of the book information about tourist products in the Russian Arctic is published, as well as in conjugate regions of the Far North, including the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions; Republic of Karelia, Komi, Sakha (Yakutia); the Nenets, the Yamalo-Nenets, Khanty-Mansi, the Chukotka Autonomous Districts; Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets Municipal District, Turukhansk district, the city of Norilsk of the Krasnoyarsk Territory; Magadan region, Kamchatka region.

The authors and compilers of the tourist guide according to the regions are the students and undergraduates: V.S. Bondina, O.A. Gildeeva, M.V. Dubrovin, R.V. Eletskaya, A.V. Elizarova, A.P. Zuevskaya, A.G. Ivanova, V.A Ivanova, D.A. Ivanovsky, A.V. Kopeeva, E.N. Kruchinina, K.M. Mamedov, M.A. Mardarovsky, I.A. Mokh, K.N. Osovskaya, T.A. Sivtsova, E.I. Sidelnikova, A.P. Terekhova, V.V. Timofeev, P.N. Cekh, S.P. Shaparenko, E.N. Shestakova. Business cards of 11 entities of the Russian Federation are published in the reference book (Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, the NAA, the Komi Republic, Yamalo-Nenets District, Republic of Karelia and Sakha (Yakutia), Chukotka, Khanty-Mansi District-Yugra, Magadan region, Kamchatka region) and 11 municipalities (Arkhangelsk, Severdvinsk, Novodvinsk, Novaya Zemlya, Primorsky, Mezen and Onega distrcists, Vorkuta, Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets districts, Norilsk, Turukhan district). All these Arctic territories are included in the Far North. In this section there is all available information about the tourist companies and destinations they offer in the regions, including the program by days, the total time duration of the tours, their prices. This information is constantly updated in the real life, but on the whole the reference book gives the objective view of the state of the development of the Arctic tourism.

The annex provides addresses and phone numbers of tourism management bodies [1, p. 234-235], the individual regulations on tourism development, adopted in the regions [1, p. 236252]. The resolution of the 4th meeting of the Arctic expert club "Arctic tourism in Russia" dated February 17, 2016, prepared by K.S. Zaikov and E.E. Plisetsky, is published [1, pp. 253-256].