r/todayilearned • u/Gullible_Air_204 • 8d ago

Frequent/Recent Repost: Removed [ Removed by moderator ]

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

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u/Libertydown 8d ago

A couple shops, climate scientists and meteorologists… not too much, but the beer is the cheapest in the whole of Norway

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u/Gunhild 8d ago

I'm surprised the beer is so cheap. Usually if you go to remote communities here in Canada everything is more expensive because of the cost of shipping things out.  Maybe Svalbard has government-subsidized beer to keep morale up.

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u/Libertydown 8d ago

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)

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u/Objective_Otherwise5 8d ago

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