Coal production in the Spitzbergen (Svalbard) archipelago will be reduced by two thirds, down to 40,000 tons per year, until 2032.

Stocks for Doomsday, ghost towns ... all this is not a description of horror films or fantasy novels, these are parts of the vast Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

Spitsbergen ("Sharp Mountains"), also known as Svalbard, is located in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern shores of Norway and the North Pole. Between Greenland and Franz Josef Land.

Governor Andrey Chibis signed a decree on the creation of the Teriberka Nature Park. The total area of the new park will be about 2.5 thousand hectares.

This became known at an operational meeting, where the head of the region thanked all colleagues who are currently engaged in the topic of tourism and environmental conservation.

"This is necessary, on the one hand, to ensure the preservation of nature in the territory, which is very popular among residents of our country, residents of our region, and foreign tourists. On the other hand, this will allow us to develop the tourist infrastructure here very actively, but carefully from the point of view of nature safety, according to clear rules. The task of the nature park will be to regulate the process of visiting this territory and preserving the natural complex," Andrei Chibis said.

The head of the region added that employees of the Murmansk Region government, the Tourism Committee and the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Fisheries of the Murmansk Region, the Directorate of Specially Protected Natural Territories of Regional Significance of the Murmansk Region and the World Wildlife Fund participated in the design of the park.

The creation of a single brand for the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation will increase the tourist attractiveness of the territory on the international market. This opinion was expressed by the head of sales for the Russian domestic market of Coral Travel Larisa Kiseleva.

"One of the national brands offered on international markets, in my opinion, should be the Russian Arctic," she said at the first Russian travel forum "Travel!".

In her opinion, the most promising regions of the Russian Arctic for promotion are the Murmansk Region, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. A single brand, as Kiselyova noted, will increase the attractiveness of the Arctic for tourists, as well as affect the economic development of all the constituent entities of the Russian Arctic.

First of all, the Arctic brand can be used to promote cultural and educational routes, says Maya Lomidze, Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators  and co-chair of the expert Council on the implementation of the program for the promotion of tourist routes in the field of domestic and inbound tourism at the Federal Agency for Tourism.

Next summer, the southern cluster of Russian Arctic National Park will get a nature trail for tourists on Cape Zhelaniya on Severny Island of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago. The project will be financed by a Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) grant.

Apart from building nature trails, experts will assess and monitor the anthropogenic impact of tourists on the environment. In 2021, a new visitor center will open on Cape Zhelaniya. Its work will help estimate the carrying capacity so as to better manage tourism in the southern cluster.

“We have received many requests to plot new tourist routes and create a barrier-free tourist environment. There are many interesting systemic projects that will effectively change the image of the Russian tourist industry and make tourism more affordable, more diverse and safer,” said Zarina Doguzova, head of Rostourism.

The federal Government has set aside 1.2 billion rubles for implementing the new tourism support measure. The average requested grant is 2.6 million. Under the tender’s terms, the winning bidder should invest their own funds totaling at least 30 percent of the grant.