Rosgeologiya Holding may repurpose several research vessels to organise tours to the Arctic for small groups. This was announced to TASS by Sergey Gorkov, head of the holding company, on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

'We have ice-class research vessels that, well, 1–2, can be converted for small groups for tourism to the Arctic and Antarctic,' he said.

Gorkov noted that such vessels require retrofitting for tourism because they have been used for research purposes.

Earlier, Alexander Kozlov, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, at a meeting of the State Council Presidium on the issue 'On the development of tourism in the Russian Federation' within the framework of the Eastern Economic Forum, proposed to reassign unused ships in the Far East for cruise tourism. Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the minister's proposal.