Cruise passengers should be offered new border-crossing stations in Arctic

ST. PETERSBURG, December 6. /TASS/. New border-crossing stations on the Alexandra Land, the Franz Josef Land archipelago, and in the Uelen settlement in Chukotka could attract more foreign tourists to the Russian Arctic, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Tourism, Rostourism, Sergei Korneyev told the Arctic: Present and Future international forum on Thursday. "It is necessary to open new border-crossing stations in the Arctic regions, which are most attractive for tourists," he said. "Those are the Alexandra Land (in the Arkhangelsk Region) - for all cruise tourists, who come to Franz Josef Land and to the Severny Island on Novaya Zemlya, as well as in Uelen in Chukotka." The Uelen settlement is close to Cape Dezhnev, where the Bering Sea meets the Chukchi Sea. Waters of the Severnaya Bay on the Alexandra Land are served by the border-crossing station at the Arkhangelsk port. The station now serves only one vessel. "The station is not busy, and private investors are not interested in upgrading it," the official said. The Uelen border-crossing station is outdated both in terms of equipment and the building, he added. Cruise tourism is rather ecology-friendly, which is very important for the Arctic, he continued. "Cruise tourism regulates the impact [on the environment]," he said. "A vessel may stop in this or that place, cruises manage the passengers’ logistics - they never go ashore all at a time." "They use the berth infrastructures and follow certain routes," he told TASS. "It is a good way to regulate the logistics and [prevent the] damage." The Arctic: Present and Future forum is underway in St. Petersburg to December 7. The event features about 2,500 delegates from Russia and 20 countries. Read more