(Yicai) Nov. 27 -- Searches for Malaysia on Chinese online travel platforms surged after the Southeast Asian country announced a 30-day visa-free entry policy for Chinese passport holders.

Travel inquiries for Malaysia soared 173 percent today from yesterday on LY.Com, with hotel searches surging 112 percent, according to the travel agency’s data. People in Shanghai and the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong have shown the most interest.

Chinese citizens will be able to stay for up to 30 days without a visa starting from next month, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday. The move came after China granted 15-day visa-free entry for up to 15 days between Dec. 1 and Nov. 30 next year to holders of French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, and Malaysian passports.

Malaysia's visa-free policy can help shorten people’s decision-making, simplify exit procedures, and reduce travel costs, making Chinese tourists more willing to visit the country and boosting its competitiveness as a tourist destination, said an insider from a research institute under LY.Com.

Searches for trips to Malaysia on China’s Mafengwo website soared 166 percent, with many users adding the county to their travel options for the upcoming Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb. 10 next year.

The new visa policy will be quite beneficial for tourism around the Lunar New Year, with the outbound travel market likely to see a jump, Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of travel agency Spring Tour, said to Yicai.

The number of Chinese visitors to Malaysia had skyrocketed over 10 times to 403,121 from June last year to the end of this May. By comparison, the figure for the whole of last year was 211,363.

Editor: Martin Kadiev