Organizational and Legal Mechanisms of Tourism Attractiveness Development of the Regions in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation

Over the past few years, domestic tourism in Russia has been developing significantly. The Russian Arctic, that is an important strategic and economic territory for the Russian Federation, has unique climatic and natural conditions. Thus, it is possible to develop unique types of tourism there. These conditions also increase the tourism potential of the regions in the Arctic zone. However, due to the permafrost and vulnerability of the ecological system in the Arctic, as well as economic development problems, the government should be involved to increase tourism attractiveness. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop recommendations for improving organizational and legal mechanisms to increase the tourism attractiveness of the Arctic regions in Russia. This paper integrates the theoretical aspects of tourism and its development, as well as the features of the tourism industry development in the Russian Arctic. What is more, it defines the methodologies to assess tourism attractiveness of destinations. To calculate the tourism attractiveness of the Arctic regions, an integral index has been created. The index includes 26 indicators divided into 5 categories. The main sources of data are federal and regional information systems, government agencies and official regional portals. The ranking results are supported by an analysis of regulatory documents that define the main vectors for tourism development in each Arctic region. To increase the tourism attractiveness, several organizational and legal measures were proposed in eight different areas. A model was also created to show the synergistic effect of these measures and their potential impact on each other.