The Norilsk Development Agency (NDA) presented the Arctic tourism and recreation cluster at the joint site of the First Arctic media congress and the Accessible Arctic international forum.
As the NDA told, the media congress discussed the development of mechanisms to attract investment in the tourism sector, the growth of tourist flows in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, the increase in the impact of tourism on the regions’s socio-economic development.
Rostourism proposes by the end of this year to work out a unified concept for the development of the Arctic tourism for the period up to 2035. The document will provide for the creation of national standards in the field of tourism, a single active marketing promotion of the Arctic region, the establishment of an international day of Arctic tourism on March 22 with the creation of the award to stimulate activities in the tourism sector. That is why it is important to declare our territory right now, the director of the NDA Maxim Mironov is sure.
“In connection with the pandemic, a demand for domestic tourism and competition between regions have arisen in the country. At the same time, the global trend for the Arctic tourism is obvious, and it was important for us to tell that the Arctic tourist cluster is ready to show the most interesting locations, give vivid impressions and comfortable rest to many tourists not only from Russia, but also from abroad”, Maksim Mironov emphasized.
At the media congress, the head of the NDA presented a report on formation of the Arctic tourist and recreational cluster from the idea to the results in three years of work. And the deputy director of the DAN Anastasia Korol spoke about the remote tourist routes of the territory and the indigenous peoples of Taimyr living in the northern villages, who are also interested in the development of tourism, registration of individual entrepreneurship and self-employment to work in this area.
“On the Putorana plateau, unorganized tourism began to develop rapidly. It must be conducted systematically and comprehensively. The first thing that our specialists did as part of the development of the tourist cluster was to take an inventory of the facilities available on the territory and united the local tourist community. Three years ago, to get to the plateau, one had to find informal (often unsafe) contacts. Now there are those who are professionally involved in the tourists transportation and the excursions organization”, Maxim Mironov said.
A separate program for the development of tourism in Taimyr and the Arctic is cruise tourism.
“Together with the Taimyr Nature Reserves, we noted that foreign liners come in and foreign tourists disembark without requests, look at walruses, take pictures of our bears and are very happy but we are somewhere behind this process,” said the NDA director. “Therefore, one of our first steps was to restore the port tourism infrastructure”.
Cruise tourism involves three zones: the first is the Khatanga bay, the second is the Yenisei bay and the third is the coast and islands of the Arctic ocean.
Also, as part of the tourist cluster development, information about small hydro-aviation was collected, the needs of remote villages, scientific reserves and tourists were taken into account, experts are calculating the economy and are already negotiating with the providers of this service on flights over Taimyr. This will greatly reduce the cost of tour routes. Also, together with experts, work on a master plan is underway: a diagram of all the lakes of the Putorana and Taimyr plateau has been drawn up. Most of them are interconnected and ultimately have access to the Arctic ocean. This allows the cruise tourism development within the peninsula.
“Together with the municipality, the documentation is being developed, and an application is being prepared for granting international status to Norilsk airport. Let me remind you that it underwent a major reconstruction, and today our runway is one of the best in Russia, capable of receiving aircraft of almost any class. This will allow tourists to visit Norilsk and Taimyr directly, bypassing St. Petersburg and Moscow”, Maxim Mironov emphasized.
In addition, together with experts, the Arctic zone internet platform is being prepared, which will house the interactive map of the area, the list of existing travel services on the peninsula. It will act as a simple and clear guide that has not exist before.
The result of the efforts is already there: in three years the tourist flow to the cluster has increased by 38 percent, 40 tourist individual entrepreneurs officially provide services, 38 professional guides and guides who have passed certification are working. And there are two motor ships – Bliznyak and Maxim Gorky – which run from Krasnoyarsk to Dudinka.
According to Maxim Mironov, Taimyr will be able to receive up to 30 thousand tourists a year. Now from two to five thousand people go to the peninsula.
In the interview with the NIA-Krasnoyarsk correspondent, Maxim Mironov emphasized that the cost of a tour to the Arctic cannot be cheap: “There will be no mass tourism in the Arctic, and we are not striving for this. But the formed tourist flow, measured in tens of thousands of tourists per year, is what we need at an average cost of the tour from 80 to 150 thousand for a ticket for five to ten days.
Text: Angelica Stepanova, Photo: zapovedsever.ru
