(Yicai) June 24 -- Online searches for trips to Australia surged in China after local visa authorities said that China and Australia will start issuing five-year multiple-entry visas to citizens to increase tourism and business travel.

Searches on travel platform LY.Com for air tickets to Australia, as well as stays and tourism products more than tripled within an hour after the Chinese Consular Service recently announced that both nations will issue five-year multiple-entry visas to citizens for business trips, tourism, and family visits to allow multiple entries for stays of no more than 90 days, Yicai learned.

On Fliggy, searches for air tickets between China and Australia nearly doubled in about an hour after the news. Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are the most popular destinations.

The optimized visa policy is deemed to show in summer holiday bookings. For the first time in years, Melbourne and Sydney made the top 20 of China's most popular outbound travel destinations during summer holidays, per LY.Com.

Last year, China's mainland was the fourth-biggest source market for tourism in New South Wales, Australia's most-visited state by foreigners, the spokesperson of Destination NSW told Yicai. The local government agency will continue in-depth cooperation with Chinese partners on marketing campaigns and trade exchanges, the source added.

Editor: Emmi Laine