The number of foreign tourists tripled in the Nenets Autonomous Area in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period of the past year, RIA Novosti reported.

"Last year, over 3,700 admirers of traditional Northern culture visited the area. The number of foreign guests is growing. Ethnographic tours are particularly popular with foreigners. Residents of Singapore, Malaysia, Africa and even Colombia come to the area to familiarize themselves with Nenets culture and spend a weekend in a chum, a nomadic tent, a RIA Novosti correspondent was told by local officials.

The Nenets Autonomous Area has been promoting tourist products under the Accessible Artic brand since 2015. Recently, the Center for Arctic Tourism, which was included in the federal registry of tour operators in April, became the state tour operator for the area. Apart from preparing new package tours for the summer season, the center will build a nomads camp for tourists in Naryan-Mar. There is high demand for renting a chum at such a camp as usual.

Tourists from Africa, Singapore, Malaysia and Colombia came to the area during the first tourist season.

"Residents of southern countries are in raptures over our clean white snow and Nordic hospitality. A group of Singaporean tourists, for one, simply lay in snow in the tundra for four hours, watching the northern lights. Apart from primordial nature, the Nenets area has competitive prices on recreation and is within easy reach. It takes only two hours to fly here from Moscow and St. Petersburg. This is why the number of foreign tourists tripled in the Nenets area in the first quarter of this year," said the area's governor, Igor Koshin.