Prominent visitors to the ice

Spitsbergen has had a larger number of prominent visitors in June and July. In late June, members of the three Scandinavian royal families went on a cruise into the ice on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden, and ministers of a number of countries visited Longyearbyen and Ny Ålesund to meet colleagues and to discuss issues including climate change. The seed vault near Longyearbyen, opened earlier this year, was also high on the wishlist, but the doors usually remain closed, even for high-ranking visitors such as former US-president Jimmy Carter, who wanted to visit the seed vault in early July together with CNN-chef Ted Turner, multimillionaire George Soros and Google founder Larry Page.

According to the local newspaper Svalbardsposten, 76% of the local population consider prominent visitors unimportant.