Today, every third tourist in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation chooses the Murmansk Region for their trip. Such data was presented at a Forum of supporters of the United Russia party in the Murmansk region.
Governor Andrey Chibis stressed that tourism is a powerful driver of the economy and an important area of the national program "To live in the North!". In recent years, the region has demonstrated steady growth in key indicators in this area.
In 10 years, the tourist flow has increased 2.5 times. Since 2019, the number of tour operators has increased 2.2 times. Over the past 7 years, the volume of paid services in tourism has amounted to about 35.2 billion rubles, and visitors' expenses have exceeded 97.5 billion rubles. Tax revenues from the tourism industry from 2020 to 2024 reached more than 2 billion rubles.
In 2025, the revenue from the tourist tax amounted to 64.1 million rubles — these funds are directed to the development and improvement of municipalities. According to preliminary data, the share of the tourism industry in the gross regional product for 2024 was 2.9%.
By the end of 2025, the Murmansk Region entered the top 10 index of tourist attractiveness of Russian regions. Record growth rates in the influx of foreign tourists have been recorded — plus 54.5% by 2024 (according to operational data from Rosstat). The region also won the ASI accelerator "Open your Russia".
Over the past 6 years, 145 tourism projects worth 479 million rubles (from the federal and regional budgets) have been supported, while 73 projects worth 440 million rubles have been supported under the national project. The investments of entrepreneurs exceeded 600 million rubles.
According to Rosstat's operational data, in January and February 2026, the Murmansk Region showed the largest increase in tourists among the regions of the Northwestern Federal District - plus 24.4%. In terms of the increase in foreign tourists, the region is among the top 3 leaders of the Northwestern Federal District with an indicator of plus 33.8%. At the same time, the Murmansk Region ranks first in the country in terms of the share of foreign tourists among all those accommodated in collective accommodation facilities — 24%.
"Murmansk is among the top destinations where Russians plan to go, for example, for the May holidays instead of traditional kebabs. And this is money, these are jobs, these are small and medium-sized businesses. Thanks to the flow of guests, money goes into infrastructure changes. If there were no traffic, we would not have a new airport, or it would be very difficult for us to create one. Look at the number of new places for catering: among the forum participants there are those who are professionally engaged in the development of public catering, which, by the way, everyone praises. Half of the proceeds are our guests. But our residents are also getting new high-quality places. And also those who come as guests, then stay, we know these people — this is very important. And of course, we will continue to position and promote the Murmansk Region as the closest Arctic," said Governor Andrey Chibis.
/ Ministry of Information Policy of the Murmansk Region /