Authors

Discussion

This paper is a part of international project CONTOURS: Conservation, Tourism, Remoteness funded by ERA.Net.RUS.Plus programme. It focuses on coastal area of the White Sea, where two rapidly developing tourist areas exist in the Chupa area on the Karelian coast and the Varzuga area on the Tersky coast. Both areas are important for unique natural and cultural heritage related to very rich salmon fisheries, which have been well documented since the 17th century. The fate of settlements, however, are completely different. In Karelia salmon stocks had declined by the mid-20th c. when other activities began to develop, such as mining and, following the deindustrialization since the 1990s, tourism. This location is well connected by railroad and highway. In the Varzuga area that does not have that developed infrastructure, salmon runs remained one of the largest in the Northern Europe being used for development of fishing tourism (angling) but now is experiencing decline and the area needs strong protection. In the paper I compare the strategies of tourism development in these two locations, and the role of natural resources and infrastructure in both attraction of specific groups of tourists and hindering more sustainable ways of tourism. I discuss the interplay of natural and historical heritage in making the regions attractive for tourists and the processes and technologies of environing of these remote northern territories.