In a story published by the country's news agency BelTA, the deputy director of the Tourism Department at Belarus' Sports and Tourism Ministry, Vitaly Gritsevich, said the country expects around 50,000 "participants" and tourists combined.

"We expect around 18,000 officials to arrive for the European Games," he is quoted as saying.

"We carried out an analysis with the directorate of the Games and expect that 30,000 tourists and sport fans will visit Belarus during this period."

The Games will take place in Minsk from June 21 to 30.

The Dinamo Stadium, which is due to host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as athletics during the Games, seats 22,000 people.

If the figures attributed to Gritsevich are correct, then that is 73 per cent of all the visitors Belarus expect during the entire Games, meaning home fans from Belarus will be needed in high numbers to fill venues.

However, in a statement sent to insidethegames, Minsk 2019 said 30,000 is actually the minimum number of tourists they expect.

"Taking into account the status of the event, visa-free regime, price policy and many other factors, we hope to attract about 70 000 visitors," they said.

In December, organisers claimed more than 10,000 tickets had been sold following an early release of around 375,000.

The event in Minsk will be the second edition of the European Games, after the multi-sport event debuted in Azerbaijan's capital Baku in 2015.

According to Azerbaijan news website AZERNEWS, around 170,000 tourists visited Azerbaijan during that event.