The Murmansk Region, a traditionally industrial region, successfully exports unique experiences: from hunting for the northern lights and meeting whales to the night sun, traditions of the northern peoples and acquaintance with Arctic cuisine.
Alexandra Kondaurova, Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region, told about this at the plenary session of the VI International Tourism Forum "Travel!", which opened at VDNH in Moscow.
As the Vice-governor noted, in 10 years the Murmansk region has made a powerful leap in creating a modern travel product.
"In the Murmansk region, tourism has become a driver of the economy, including the service economy. This is especially true for small settlements, of which we have a large number," stressed Alexandra Kondaurova.
The tourist flow to the Kola Arctic since 2019 has amounted to about 4 million people. Today, every third tourist in the Russian Arctic chooses the Murmansk region for their trip — the closest Arctic, the flight to which from the main airports of the country takes no longer than one film. By the end of 2025, the region entered the top 10 of the index of tourist attractiveness of Russian regions, it was visited by about 800,000 people. In the winter season of 2026, the region showed the largest increase in tourists among the regions of the Northwestern Federal District (+24.4%), entered the top 3 leaders of the Northwestern Federal District in terms of the increase in intourists (+33.8%) and became the first in the country in terms of the share of intourists among all those accommodated in the DAC (24%).
Alexandra Kondaurova, Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region, also participated in the sessions "Discover Russia: new tourism products for foreign tourists and non-standard ways to promote them" and "New tourism clusters in the Russian Arctic: investments, infrastructure, logistics" with the theme "Murmansk Region. The Arctic is the closest."
During the presentation, the tourism potential of the region, key areas of industry development, as well as approaches to the formation of modern tourism products and promotion of the Murmansk region in domestic and international markets were presented.
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The VI International Tourism Forum "Travel!" opened yesterday at VDNH in Moscow. A key global event in the Russian tourism industry brings together industry professionals and a wide audience of travelers. The number of visitors is expected to exceed half a million people.
The Roscongress Foundation, together with the Ministry of Economic Development and with the support of the Russian Government, is the organizer of the international travel forum "Travel!".
/ Ministry of Tourism and Entrepreneurship of the Murmansk Region /