#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. A master plan for the Arctic tourist and recreational cluster has been presented in Norilsk. Since the beginning of 2020, the strategic document has been developed by the Norilsk Development Agency (ARN) and the Zapovedniki Ecocenter with the participation of the Tourism Agency of the Krasnoyarsk region, the regional Business Development Agency, the Norilsk and Taimyr municipalities.
In preparing the master plan, more than 200 individual interviews and group meetings has been held with all parties involved and interested in tourism development. The developers have more than two months of field work behind them.
The Russian Federation, which owns 40 percent of the Arctic coast, now accounts for only 11 percent of the tourist flow, and the growth rate of Arctic tourism in Russia is minimal.
At the same time, in Taimyr you can see everything for which tourists go to the Arctic:
animalistic five – musk ox, Putorana bighorn sheep (bighorn), polar bear, reindeer, Laptev walrus;
landscape five – Putorana plateau, Byrranga mountains, Anabar plateau, Popigai crater, tundra;
five ethnic groups of Taimyr – Dolgans, Nenets, Enets, Evenks, Nganasans;
five main natural phenomena – northern lights, ice drift, reindeer migration, polar day, bird migration.
A SWOT analysis of all territories of the Arctic tourist cluster, carried out during the master plan preparation, indicates the Taimyr huge tourism potential, the possibility of developing all-season tourism, the great role of tourism in preserving the culture of indigenous peoples, taking into account the preservation of the fragile Arctic nature and the interests of local residents.
To structure the gigantic territory of the Arctic, and its area is almost 900 thousand square kilometers, subclusters have been identified: Norilsk – Dudinka, the Putorana Plateau, inner Taimyr and others.
The document contains a list of promising areas of development – ethnic, cruise, historical, industrial tourism, birdwatching, animalistics, photo tours, as well as priority projects focused on both external and internal tourists:
Zatundra – construction of a road to lake Melkoye and tourist infrastructure on the Norilo-Pyasina reservoirs system territory;
Haraelah tourist territory creation – development of the infrastructure of the massif with the formation of pedestrian, water, bicycle, autotourist, ski and winter complex routes;
Ol-Gul skibase development;
mount Schmidt tourist and recreational zone creation;
Hatanga – North Pole – restart of a successful project of the 90s to deliver tourists to the North Pole through Hatanga;
modernization and development of the berthing infrastructure of the Dudinka seaport (passenger sector);
Tundra Legends complex in Dudinka creation.
“Our master plan is an instruction for the development of tourism in Taimyr. The training helped to collect a huge amount of information about our land. For example, at the start of work on the document, we encountered a complete lack of photographs of a number of territories. Several expeditions were organized to collect data. And there are practically no white spots left on the Taimyr map. It is interesting that even in the process of working on the master plan, we have already begun to implement its activities. As a result, external and internal tourist flows have increased, the tourism community has expanded and strengthened, and the quality of services in the tourism industry is growing. Huge work is already underway to create new and develop existing tourist routes, and the two tour operators even decided to jointly create a national branded tourist route that will unite Norilsk, Dudinka, Hatanga and Dixon. This is a great victory for our territory”, said Anastasia Korol, deputy director of the NDA for tourism development.
On April 25, the master plan was approved at a meeting with the head of Norilsk. Following the strategic document was presented to the general public, and then – in the administration of Taimyr.
After the approval of the master plan for the tourist cluster at the municipal level, the document will be sent to the Tourism Agency of the Krasnoyarsk region, and then to the Ministry of Development of the Far East and the Arctic and to Rostourism.
Previously, we talked about the first snowmobile festival in Norilsk, the project In the Footsteps of the Bighorn, as well as about the farm in the Arctic, the best family business for tourists.
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Text: Anzhelika Stepanova, Photo: Norilsk Development Agency and Nikolay Shchipko
