Russia - Murmansk

The majority of tourism organizations in the Murmansk region are concerned with remaining competitive, what can be sustained by cooperative tourism products. Furthermore, there is a need for common legislative base for the tourism industry to simplify processes and joint development of new tourism activities requires the study of regional resources (cultural, ethnical, historical, natural and ecological) and the knowledge about available services (transport, objects of public catering). The companies need profound information about tourism services provided in the other Barents countries.  It is suggested to make use of public funding since tourism enterprises are mainly small and lack capital to finance large market based research.

The directions of tourism development in the Murmansk region are ecotourism, active leisure-slalom and extreme tourism, historical and cultural tourism, fishing, diving, MICE-tourism and different forms of individual and family tourism. Nevertheless, there are several internal and external factors hindering the creation of new tourism products: the low level of the linguistic competence, the absence of self-presentation skills, minimal product advertisement, the insufficient level of tourism infrastructure and the lack of sharing information. MICE tourism is seen as a fruitful branch from the economic and social points of view. Nevertheless, major developments have to be made in the regions based on research in furtherance to be an attractive host destination.