The Russian Arctic territory is an area which significantly influences Russian socio-economic development. It is considered as an important element for the future development of the whole nation, with the hope to utilise its natural wealth discovered during the last decades. Moreover, these considerations are now placed into the context of the faith of the indigenous people inhabiting this vast territory. In contemporary society, both national and regional policies have been influenced in an effort to find alternative ways of engaging the indigenous people in the process of development. This paper aims to identify and analyse the issues influencing process of general tourism development in the Russian Arctic. This done by the re-evaluation of regional tourism planning process and existing products, as well as the marketing strategies of the eight administrative units of the territory of the Russian Arctic, including Murmansk, Arkhangelsk (Nenets Autonomous Okrug) and Tumen oblasts (Jamal-Nenets Okrug), Krasnoyarsk Krai (Taymyr Dolgano-Nenets municipal rayon), Sakha Republic, Chukotka autonomous okrug. Although these territories possess unique natural and cultural characteristics suitable for the development of unique tourism products this potential is either not utilised or only partly utilised. It is possible to identify clear losers as well as the leaders in this process. This situation is often dependent on the level of the engagement of the public organisations, as well as private companies within the natural resource extraction sector. It is an important condition for a successful implementation of the desired tourism development, as well as for the indigenous tourism product development.