Russia's first national tourism and ethnographic project, Friendship Forum — the Nenets Autonomous Area, a Gate to the Arctic, devoted to the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, has opened in Naryan-Mar, Arctic-info reports.

The aim of the event is to draw attention to the Nenets Autonomous Area as a promising tourist region. The forum is expected to become a platform for the promotion and presentation of tourism and ethnographic projects and military-patriotic programs to develop children's tourism in the country. High on the agenda will also be discussion of issues related to the implementation of state tourism and ethnographic programs on the federal and regional level.

The forum's program includes a plenary session, the presentation of the region's tourist itineraries and a snowmobile competition for the Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Russia Artur Chilingarov Cup.

The forum is organized by the Druzya Zapolyarya [Polar Friends] NGO with support from the Russian Ministry of Culture, the administration of the Nenets Autonomous Area, the Science and Education Ministry's Federal Center for Juvenile Tourism and Ethnography, and the Russian Geographical Society.

The forum's business program will be attended by Nenets Governor Igor Koshin, Deputy Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Northwestern Federal District Lyubov Sovershayeva and Deputy Chairman of the Federal Tourism Agency Sergei Korneyev.