Prerequisites and innovative aspects of Arctic tourism development

Abstract

Nowadays, the study of the Arctic region highlights, and countries show increasingly greater attention in the developing of Arctic zone. Every country, that owns even a small territory in the Arctic region, tries to use this opportunity to develop tourism and drawing of tourist’s attention. Recently, the question of developing tourism in Arctic is risen more often. Tourism can become a major industry for the regions of Russian North, comparable with the transport or producing sectors. The article shows the Arctic zone as a promising region for the development in the tourist sector. It analyses the legislation documents, which characterize the regulation of activities in the Arctic at the international level. It was found out that the analyzed documents do relate to the activities of enterprises of the tourism industry in the Arctic only indirectly. Based on the analysis the development of legal and methodological documents regulating the tourism industry at the international and regional levels was proposed. In the article, based on an analysis of the structure of tourist flows in the Arctic countries and the structure of tourist routes presented in the Arctic regions of Russia, it was concluded that it is necessary to support regional development. For effective distribution of financial support, it is recommended to use the “Arctic tourism index” as an optimal mechanism for reflecting the overall development of the regions in the tourism industry, taking into account the existing socio-economic conditions. “Arctic tourism index” should become an approved assessment tool that characterizes the participants of the tourism market in the Arctic not only in the Russian Federation, but also at the international level.