All North Pole cruises rescheduled to 2021
The three tourist voyages in July and August with Russia's powerful nuclear icebreaker "50 Let Pobedy" will not take place due to the COVID-19 situation.
Tour operator Poseidon Expeditions is now reaching out to travel partners and guests with reservations for the tours from Murmansk to the North Pole offering re-bookings.
“National travel bans and border restrictions related to COVID-19 have continued to shed uncertainty on our ability to operate scheduled Arctic cruises during this 2020 summer season. This has affected all areas of operation, and has necessitated that we now postpone and reschedule all the departures in the Arctic through the end of September 2020 to the following 2021 Arctic season,” Poseidon Expeditions writes in the update.
“For the North Pole, the situation is currently dictated by a travel ban issued by the Russian Federation affecting foreigners wishing to visit Russian territory,” says spokesperson Steve Wellmeier in an e-mail to the Barents Observer.
Wellmeier is optimistic about the 2021 summer season, saying 90% of the passengers with reservations for the 2020 season are ok with moving the bookings to next year.
Dates for next year’s two-weeks voyages are set to July 10, July 21 and August 1.
By June 11, a total of 3,760 COVID-19 infections have been detected in the Murmansk region, of which 1,120 are currently being treated, regional authorities informs. 41 people with the virus have been hospitalized in the last 24 hours.
With a daily increase of more than 8,000 cases, Russia’s total registration of people infected by the virus passed 500,000 on Thursday, according to the official data.
