Arctic regions are increasingly dominating global debates concerning the range of effects of the climate changes, especially when it comes to the new possibilities for the natural resource exploitation. Rapid changes in the Arctic open up for a series of discussions connected to the political stability, control and cooperation in this region. At the same time, further exploitation of the considerable natural wealth of the territories of the Russian Arctic calls for a discussion on the role of alternative pathways, especially when it comes to the impacts on the indigenous communities of the region. Tourism activities, if developed, could provide an alternative path for the development of local communities. Central government has recently announced a new development strategy for the Russian North where the sustainable tourism development is named as one of the possible alternative ways for developing marginalised indigenous communities, as well as the part of more open attitude towards foreign visitors in this area. This region is believed to become “an important cultural and economy centre in a Barents region and on the Russian North” already year 2030. However, since the Russian Arctic is facing an increased environmental degradation due to the massive oil and gas exploration operations it is unlikely that a sustainable development of tourism is possible without other sectors of economy following in the same direction. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a current state of the development of the tourism sector in the Nenets autonomous okrug (NAO), as well as to identify primary stakeholders in the context of the tourism development in the region. What are the institutional and political conditions affecting tourism development nowadays? How the system of resource management is organised when it comes to the utilisation and the access to the natural resources, at the same time claimed by other industries? The identification of the primary stakeholders is made through analysis of official documents, as well as web-pages of relevant organisations (governmental, public and private), textual material from daily press sources relevant to the case study are analysed and interpreted. The semi-structured interviews with several actors from different levels of authority will be conducted in order to obtain in-depth insights concerning the present development of the tourism sector. In line with previous research it is possible to conclude that considerable marketing efforts, including investments on basic infrastructure to facilitate tourist flows are necessary in order to fulfil some of the visions towards the role of tourism sector for the Russian Arctic communities. The peculiarities of the highly centralised administrative structure of the Russian resource management system make it highly improbable to ease a burden of the regional and local governmental organisations when it comes to opening up for alternative uses of natural reserves and natural parks by private actors. Rejuvenation of the tourism space in case of NAO is highly questionable due to the strong presence of the hydrocarbon sector in the region and without serious state interventions will remain rather a myth then a reality.