Expedition ship Professor Khromov sets out on maiden voyage from the Port of Korsakov
The cruise operator plans eight voyages on five routes this season
Expedition cruise ship Professor Khromov with 45 passengers on board has set sail on the her first voyage. The vessel passengers will visit the water areas of federal law protected special natural areas. The vessel that recently underwent dry-docking took off from the Salkhalin based Port of Korsakov July 2, 2023. The expedition ship will complete her voyage in the Port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia said.
In 2022, the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia Alexander Kozlov, at a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council on Tourism Development chaired by President Vladimir Putin, spoke about the project implemented under a PPP program of conversion of unused research vessels of organizations subordinate to the ministry into cruise ships.
The Professor Khromov is one of these vessels. The ice class ship was built for polar and oceanographic research and is was managed by the Far Eastern Hydrometeorological Institute. After conversion, the ship is alternately used for scientific research and expedition cruises.
Minister Alexander Kozlov commented: “The Ministry has developed ten routes, which include visits to protected areas - and this is one of the uniqueness of this type of recreation. Cruise passengers will be able to visit territories that are often inaccessible to land-based tourists. Today, when the domestic tourism market is gaining momentum, cruise tours stand out among the range of offers of cruise operators due to their exclusivity and unusual program. In general, we are seeing an increased interest in visiting specially protected natural areas: from January to May this year, more than 2.3 million tourists became their visitors. This is one and a half times more than the same period last year - then this figure was 1.4 million tourists."
The participants of the cruise will have to pass along the entire Kuril archipelago: visit historical places associated with its development, get acquainted with the geology of the islands, see the battlefields of the Second World War. During the cruise, passengers of the Professor Khromov will have a landing at the Cape End of the World in the waters of the Malye Kurils State Nature Reserve.
During the ten-day cruise voyage the Professor Khromov will pass 1.200 nautical miles. The change of passengers is scheduled for July 12 in the Port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Then the ship will go on a return voyage to Sakhalin.
The Panarctic Star tour operator plans eight cruise voyages on five routes for this season. Navigation will continue until the beginning of October, and the cruises will be held in three regions: Sakhalin Region, Kamchatka Territory, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Among the specially protected natural areas that participants of cruise tours will visit are the Beringia National Park, the Wrangel Island and Koryaksky nature reserves, the Komandorsky natural biosphere reserve and others.
