Problems of developing Arctic cruise tourism in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The article presents a structured analytical review of the constraints affecting Arctic cruise tourism development in the Russian Federation. The study aims to systematize and operationalize the key constraints of Arctic cruising, compare Russian and international approaches to their governance, and develop a sequence of management decisions suitable for practical testing. The source base comprises 18 academic publications: nine studies by Russian researchers and nine international peer-reviewed studies covering the Russian Arctic, Svalbard, Arctic Canada, Iceland, and Greenland. Regulatory and strategic documents are treated as an institutional context and are not included in the academic reference list. The methods include comparative institutional analysis, structured extraction of findings from academic publications, clustering of constraints, and an author-designed multicriteria prioritization procedure. The article distinguishes Arctic cruise tourism from expedition cruising and proposes measurable indicators for visitor pressure, infrastructure reliability, local value retention, and governance readiness. Eleven individual constraints are consolidated into five interrelated clusters. Cross-case comparison shows that the most transferable mechanisms for Russia are not foreign numerical caps as such, but site-specific visitor management, early voyage planning, interagency coordination, monitoring, and community participation. A 2027–2030 roadmap with responsible governance levels and verifiable indicators is proposed. The scientific contribution lies in replacing a linear list of barriers with a “limiting-link” model in which expansion is admissible only after environmental, safety, infrastructure, and institutional readiness have been assessed.