A Russian boycott of Turkey following the shooting down of a Russian warplane could have dire consequences for the country’s tourism industry, it was claimed.

Russia is the second largest market for Turkey, only just behind Germany, and it was – until this week – by far the fastest growing.

In the five years from 2009, the market has doubled to 4.5 million trips a year.

But this week, Russia’s state tourism agency Rostourism recommended suspending the sale of holidays to Turkey after a Russian warplane was shot down on the Turkish/Syrian border.

The TASS news agency quoted Russian tour operator Natali Tours saying it will halt sales of tours to Turkey ‘in the near future’.

And Moscow announced that Turkey was no more safe than Egypt, where a Russian holiday flight was bombed out of the sky last month.

Vitalij Vladykin, research manager at industry commentator Euromonitor International said: “Turkey is the most popular leisure tourism destination for Russians, with more than 4.5 million trips being done from Russia to Turkey in 2014

“Even if Turkey tries to attract tourists from other countries, it will not make up losses from Russia.”