Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi  holds a working lunch for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the Lijiang River, Guilin. Source: the Facebook account of Russian Foreign Ministry

The just-ended two-day visit by the Russian foreign minister to Guilin, a scenic spot in South China, will provide a boost for local tourism, industry insiders told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Sergei Lavrov in Guilin, a popular tourist city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Monday. 

Lavrov enjoyed a cruise on the Lijiang River, a beautiful scenic spot, before he arrived at the venue for his meeting with Wang.

An online video shows the city's green scenery, which is at its annual peak, and views like "this will greatly promote the popularity of Guilin tourism," Luo Yiyun, who is from the Russian department of Guilin Tianyuan Travel Service Co, told the Global Times.

Luo said that the agency had arranged visits by some Russian tourists to the city last year, but they couldn't enter due to the coronavirus. However, she believed that Lavrov's tour of Guilin would increase the city's popularity among Russians. "When they choose the route of entry, I think they will think of Guilin."

"We didn't know that the ministers would come to this place on that day. So far, there has not been an obvious increase of tourists, but I believe there will be more in the coming days," a staffer at a Lijiang scenic spot in the city told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Data from online travel platform qunar.com showed that on Monday and Tuesday, the number of air tickets booked to Guilin during the upcoming Qingming Festival holidays was up 51 percent from a week earlier.

Air fares had also increased, as the average price paid for a ticket to Guilin was 628 yuan ($96) on Monday and Tuesday, an increase of 15 percent from a week earlier, the data showed. 

Guilin has always been a hot spot for Chinese travelers, and March and April have always been the peak periods for local tourism, an employee from China International Travel Service Guilin said.

There are no current restrictions on travelers to Guilin, as long as they haven't left China within 28 days, and there is no need to make reservations at scenic spots.

The recovery of local tourism is also in line with the national trend. Chinese residents were able to travel more freely by train across the country starting from March 16, as China further lifted domestic travel restrictions amid a clear and stable COVID-19 situation.

This policy triggered a new bout of travel fever, and insiders predicted that China's tourism sector will experience a boom as demand was restrained due to COVID-19 prevention measures since the Spring Festival holiday.