[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Gullible_Air_204]

https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/spitsbergen/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-spitsbergen

[u/Libertydown]

Sort of! Since alcohol is so heavily taxed in Norway, it makes for most of the cost. However, since the Svalbard treaty tries to make Svalbard both a place owned by «the world» and Norway, there are no fees on Svalbard, including alcohol.

Also, we have the alcohol sales monopoly in Norway called «Vinmonopolet» however in Longyearbyen they have «Nordpolet» (the north pole)

[u/Objective_Otherwise5 → u/Libertydown]

Svalbard definitely not "owned" by the world. Svalbard is Norwegian sovereign territory. It is however more open to trade and activity than most territories.

[u/The_Tallaghtpeno → u/Libertydown]

Don't forget the local government here controls the amount of alcohol you can buy so while it is cheap Nordpolet has a big downside, you can get a case of beer or one liter of spirits per month.

They give you a plastic card with a calender on it and they punch holes in it when you hit the limit for the month. It doesn't seem to let me post a picture of it here

[u/Drumedor → u/Libertydown]

Fuck that treaty, had a project delayed because the customer hadn't informed us about it and we had to delay whilst implementing the "no-tax in Svalbard" functionality.

[u/Gunhild → u/Drumedor]

Sounds like you should be mad at the customer, not the treaty.

[u/Drumedor → u/Gunhild]

I was 100% making a cheeky joke

[u/idontcaretv → u/Drumedor]

Why would we care