The Murmansk Region, which entire territory is in the Russian Arctic Zone, plans to welcome about 1 million tourists a year, the region’s official on tourism Marina Kosheleva told the 4th Siberian Tourism Forum on Thursday.

"We have reached a certain record (in 2021 - TASS) - 486,000 tourists," she said. "But this is not our limit; we want to welcome 1 million tourists to the Arctic."

In 2023, the region will complete the upgrade of the Murmansk airport, which will be able to serve long-haul flights, she continued. The new terminal’s annual capacity will be more than 1 million passengers.

The Murmansk Region’s Governor Andrey Chibis told the conference about the government’s plan to allocate from the federal budget 146 million rubles ($2.5 million) under the Tourism and Hospitality National Project.

While before the pandemic, about 70% of visitors to the Murmansk Region were tourists from Asia, nowadays "rather wealthy tourists" from across Russia come to the region, the governor said. "486,000 tourists - the result of year 2021 - is more than in (pre-pandemic - TASS) 2019," he said. "Sure, our key task is the development of infrastructures, many lodges, hotels. We benefit from the Arctic Hectare program, from the Governor Startup grants, and we are getting more and more accommodation options."

A separate direction in the regional tourism is the Arctic cuisine. "It was only three years ago that our restaurants and cafes said it would not be of demand. Today, we can judge by the revenues of those restaurants of Arctic cuisine, of fresh seafood. This is another input in attracting guests to us. But, most importantly, the development of tourism infrastructures means that our residents may travel for a weekend, to have rest, to feel the nature, to try it, and this way they come to love even more the Murmansk Region, which is very important," the governor said.