Burnt by the Sun

The northern regions of Russia are commonly considered as the least attractive places for tourists. However, the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions are actively developing cruise tourism and the number of those who would be willing to visit the North Pole and Franz Josef Land is constantly growing. Moreover, the Murmansk regional authorities are going to begin construction of a specialized cruise port.

Cold tours

FSUE Atomflot has been for several years organizing cruises to the North Pole. Despite the fact that the cost of such cruises is one of the highest in the world, the number of people willing to be onboard a nuclear icebreaker sailing to the North Pole is constantly increasing. This can be explained that Russia is the only country that owns nuclear-powered icebreakers (in operation of Atomflot), and that the offer is quite exceptional. The cruise includes sightseeing tours on helicopters.

According to the Deputy Governor of the Murmansk region Alexei Tyukavin, there are four icebreaker voyages  to the North Pole scheduled for 2012, which will carry about 500 tourists.

Another unique northern cruise is a trip onboard the diesel-electric icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn owned by Rosmorport to Franz Josef Land (Arkhangelsk region). The icebreaker on July 18, 2012 departed from the seaport of Murmansk and set sail with 116 Russian and foreign passengers on board. It was chartered for 10 days by the interregional public organization Association of Polar Explorers for tours on the Barents and Kara seas to the archipelago of Franz Josef without entering the territorial waters of other states. The icebreaker has accommodations for 128 passengers (60 cabins). Of the total number 52 are double-berthed cabins, including 6 luxury-class ones, and 8 cabins designed to accommodate three passengers.

Using icebreakers for cruises is a good solution to reduce the cost of maintaining them during the idle period when the vessels are not providing icebreaking assistance.

Heading for the North

According to data presented by Alexei Tyukavin at the 4th International forum "Marine tourism" in St. Petersburg, over the past 5 years the average gain in cruise passenger traffic in Northern Europe was 11.5% a year, which indicates good prospects in this segment. In comparison, the same figure in the Black Sea region was only 0.5% a year.

Overall, in 2012 the port of Murmansk expects arrivals of 15 cruise ships versus 11 in 2011.

The Murmansk region intends to develop cruise tourism, and is considering the construction of a passenger port in Murmansk to be named "Arctic Harbor." At present, the authorities decided to return to a variant of the project, according to which the view of the sea from the downtown will not be closed by the terminal buildings. The project implementation will allow Murmansk to receive up to 50 cruise line ships a year.

In addition, the regional authorities mulls over establishing a regular cruise service between Murmansk and Kirkenes of Norway. This requires a visa-free regime for temporary stay in the territory of the Murmansk region for passengers arriving on cruise ships.

In Arkhangelsk, cruises to the Solovetsky Islands (or Solovki) are very popular among tourists. There are six cruise visits scheduled for this year. The local authorities are studying the possibility to extend the route of cruise ships from Northern Norway to the Arkhangelsk region, with calls to the Solovki Islands and visits to the villages of pomors (Russian coast-dwellers) along the White Sea.

So, if Russian lawmakers approve legislation, in particular, on a temporary visa-free stay in the northern regions for cruise tourists and the region succeeds in building appropriate infrastructure, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk region could become one of the most interesting parts of the world for cruise tourism. It is possible that the Northern Sea Route may some day become another popular route for cruise vessels.

Vitaly Chernov