The first Chinese tour groups to head to Britain following the announcement of Approved Destination Status (ADS) in January will start to arrive from 20 July.

Previously, visitors to Britain from China could only come on business or as students. The granting of ADS now enables Chinese citizens to obtain UK visas for the first time.

Each tour is expected to last about a week and include London, Edinburgh and a third destination such as the Lake District, the Cotswolds, Bath, Oxford or Cambridge. Trips will be planned to major attractions such as the London Eye, Tate Modern, Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

Charlie Li, VisitBritain’s Beijing representative, also predicts that Chinese tourists will be interested in the Royal family and Princess Diana and will want to visit famous Premiership football cities – like Manchester and Liverpool – as well as Chinatown.

“Visits from China have more than doubled in the last five years to more than 100,000, with spending rising by 60 per cent,” said Tom Wright, chief executive of VisitBritain. Wright is currently in Shanghai as part of a major drive to encourage visits and welcome potential tourists.

VisitBritain predicts that the relaxed rules could see more than 200,000 vistors per year arriving from China by 2010 and the potential for China to be in Britain’s top 10 inbound tourism markets by 2020 – a boost to British tourism which could be worth more than £200m by 2010 and over £0.5bn by 2020. Details: www.visitbritain.com