Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday recommended against Russians travelling to Turkey after cancelling his own planned visit after Ankara shot down a Russian fighter jet.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday recommended against Russians travelling to Turkey after cancelling his own planned visit after Ankara shot down a Russian fighter jet.

"The critical mass of terrorist incidents on Turkish soil, according to our estimates, is no less of a threat than in Egypt," Lavrov said in televised comments.

"For this reason of course we do not recommend that our citizens travel to Turkey for tourism or any other reason," Lavrov said, speaking from Sochi.

There are currently around 10,000 Russian tourists in Turkey according to the Russian Tour Industry Union, Interfax news agency reported.

Along with Egypt, Turkey is the top holiday destination for Russians, with more than 3 million visiting in 2014, making them the second biggest group of visitors after the Germans.

Now though "it's not the season, and we hope that there aren't many people there," the head of Russia's national tourism agency, Oleg Safonov, told Interfax news agency.

Russian tour operator Natali Tours, one of the country's largest, has already announced that it has suspended sales of package holidays to Turkey.

"We assessed the situation and realized that it could develop according to the most negative scenario. It's better to halt sales of tours until the situation clears up," its president Vladimir Vorobyov told TASS state news agency.