(Yicai) June 13 -- China will waive visa requirements for New Zealand citizens, as part of the country’s drive to boost inbound tourism and pursue high-level opening up. Scheduled flights between the two nations are already more than before the pandemic.

Within half an hour of the announcement, China-related searches by New Zealanders jumped 65 percent from the day before, tech media 36kr reported, citing data from Chinese online travel agency Trip.com Group.

Both nations are important tourist destinations for each other, said Qin Jing, vice president of Shanghai-based Trip.com. New Zealand is China’s 15th largest source of tourists, and inbound travel bookings from New Zealand have soared almost 60 percent this year.

Many airlines, such as China Southern Airlines, Air China and China Eastern Airlines, fly direct to Auckland and there are already more scheduled flights than before the pandemic. Non-stop flights to Auckland from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Haikou can be bought on online travel agency Qunar. A round-trip flight to Auckland from Beijing during the peak summer months costs around CNY5,000 (USD689).

China has waived visa requirements for travelers from many countries in the past year, boosting inbound tourism. The number of Singaporean tourists who visited China using the visa-free policy soared 10-fold in the first quarter from a year earlier, the number from Malaysia jumped nine times, and the number from France, Spain and Thailand quintupled, Trip.com said.

Editor: Kim Taylor