The Alaskan cruise market may be getting some variety on longer itineraries as soon as the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East has finished constructing a brand-new pier for megaships.

This will let the Russian region compete for calls on long cruise routes, according to the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) Oleg Safonov.

“In 2014 Kamchatka was visited by 50,000 tourists, of which 14,000 were foreigners,” said Safonov. “And Alaska is getting 2 million tourists. Our goal is to boost tourism and part of that is attracting cruise vessels.”

The new pier will be completed later this year, while at the same time officials at Rosturizm are planning to start a dialogue with the major cruise lines operating in Alaska.

Before that it will be a record year in the Russian Far East for the cruise business, with 20,000 passengers visiting on 26 port calls.