BEIJING, January 26. /TASS/. The Russian embassy in Beijing expects the number of tourists from China to the Russian Federation to soar after February 6 as the People’s Republic of China will resume tourist trips for organized groups to Russia and some other countries, a representative of the Russian diplomatic mission told TASS on Thursday.

"We expect a considerable increase in [the number of] tourist trips from the People’s Republic of China after February 6 when package tours to Russia and a number of other countries are again offered to organized groups. We expect that the traditionally high interest of Chinese citizens in traveling across our country will only increase," the embassy said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China said that beginning on February 6, the country’s travel agencies and online firms would resume a trial regime of organizing outbound tours as well as the ‘air ticket plus hotel’ service for groups of Chinese citizens to Russia and some other countries.

Before the pandemic, Chinese citizens ranked first among foreign tourists to Russia. In 2019, 1.5 mln Chinese tourists visited Russia.