(Yicai) March 15 -- The start of 15-day visa-free travel for visitors to China from six European countries has triggered a surge in interest in visiting the Asian nation.

Bookings for China from Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Switzerland nearly tripled yesterday from a year earlier and jumped about 40 percent from the pre-pandemic level of 2019, according to data from Chinese travel agency Trip.Com. Reservations from Belgium, Hungary, and Switzerland, Belgium, and Hungary soared over 300 percent.

Citizens of those countries can travel to China for up to 15 days without a visa for business, family visits, or transit from yesterday to Nov. 30. However, despite the surge in travel bookings, airfares remain high compared with 2019 because flight numbers have not fully resumed yet.

Of the six countries, there are still no direct flights from Ireland to China, while only those on the China-Belgium route had recovered to the level of 2019 last month, according to Flight Master data. China-Switzerland and China-Austria flights have rebounded to 63 percent and 51 percent, respectively.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced a unilateral 15-day visa-free policy for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia last November, which runs from Dec. 1 last year and Nov. 30 this year. Except for China-Italy and China-Spain flights, the rest still fall short of 2019's level.

China has introduced more than 10 measures to ease inbound travel since the second half of last year, including simpler visa application procedures, lower fees, and improved payment methods.

The continued expansion of the visa-free policy scope and payment facilitation measures can promote the rapid recovery of inbound tourism, said Trip.Com Vice President Qin Jing. Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, and other developed European countries highly rate travel to China, Qin added, noting that with flights further resuming, inbound travel to China may grow quickly.

Editor: Martin Kadiev