Tourism is one of the sectors most heavily affected by COVID-19. Experts believe that the industry will undergo significant restructuring, with travel abroad giving way to domestic tourism, and trips to places where people don’t gather in large numbers becoming more popular. According to Managing Director of the 21st Century Arctic International Union Valery Korovkin, current circumstances offer a chance to develop a new tourist destination. It is an area that has been discussed for a long time, but which little is currently being done to promote. Arctic tourism is a potentially highly profitable business from the perspective of federal and regional budgets, and has long been successfully exploited by other coastal nations.

The World Energy Council published the survey results about perspectives on the long-term implications of COVID-19 and structural shifts that will shape the ‘new normal’ in a post-pandemic future. Energy development scenarios and mechanisms to adapt to unstable economic conditions — all of these issues will form part of the business programme at the World Energy Congress in St. Petersburg in 2022. The event is organized by the World Energy Council, the Russian National Committee of the World Energy Council and the Roscongress Foundation.