THE ARCTIC TOURISM IS THE INNOVATIVE IMPULSE OF THE EUROPEAN NORTH DEVELOPMENT
The purpose of the article is to study the tourist potential of the European North and on its basis to determine the directions of the innovative development of the northern territories tourism in the conditions of the Arctic exploration. In the article following methods were used: analysis of approaches to the research of tourist potential of the territory; development and approbation of the technique of tourist potential level determination of the northern territories by means of the expert evaluation and mathematical apparatus. The results were achieved: the objects of tourist attraction of the Arctic zones of the European North were considered; by means of the critical analysis of the existing approaches to the tourist potential studying their advantages and disadvantages were revealed; on the basis of the author's technique application the northern territories with the largest level of tourist potential were pointed; the problems and prospects of development and implementation of tourist potential of the territories of the European North in the conditions of the Arctic exploration were determined. The originality of this author's technique of tourist potential assessment is determined by a complex of criteria which includes the image of the tourist region, the level of development of tourist infrastructure, the labor potential of tourism, transport availability and ecological usefulness of the territory, comfort and safety of the tourist, and also competitive, institutional and innovative components of the tourist sphere. The basic provisions and conclusions of the articlecan be used by regional authorities and administration for the purpose of tourist attraction development in the northern territories. The conducted research allows claiming that the development of the tourist projects including the Arctic recreational zones will promote full implementation of the tourist potential of the northern territories and can become the innovative impulse of the European North development.