A tourist poses for photos in a lavender field in Sigong Village, Huocheng County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2023. Sigong Village has planted 12,000 mu (about 800 hectares) of lavender. The lavender planting bases here have helped promote local tourism and the lavender processing industry. In 2022, per capita income in Sigong Village reached 22,000 yuan (about 3,080 US dollars). (Xinhua/Hao Zhao)

Searches for outbound travel destinations on Chinese online platforms jumped 20-fold, just hours after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Thursday announcing the resumption of a third list of group tours to 78 countries including the US, Japan, Australia and India.

Immediately following the announcement, searches for outbound travel jumped more than 20-fold on Chinese online travel platform Trip.com, according to data sent to the Global Times on Thursday.

The report noted that outbound travel during the National Day holidays in early October were the most searched options, with countries such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand among the most popular destinations. 

Meanwhile, the platform said it has received a large number of inquiries for overseas travel, over 10 times than daily average inquiries during this summer travel peak season.

A manager from Trip.com said the company will launch outbound travel products to destinations including Japan, Australia and the US as soon as possible, with the first group tour for Japan scheduled in September, and a couple of others to Australia, Morocco and Israel around the National Day holidays.

As investors bet on an accelerated recovery for the travel service industry, tourism and aviation shares rallied on Thursday. South China's Hainan-based CAISSA Tourism Group rose by 4.52 percent by 2 pm to 4.86 yuan ($0.69), UTour Group Co jumped by 2.55 percent to 8.46 yuan and Spring Airlines rose by 5.78 percent to 61 yuan.

Within half an hour after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's announcement, Shanghai Spring Tours launched a 12-day overseas group tour to countries including Austria and Czech Republic as well as cruise travel to Japan.

"We're excited about the news. This serves as a loud bugle call for the full resumption of China's outbound travel, which will also boost the recovery of air flights," Zhou Weihong, a deputy general manager from Shanghai Spring Tours, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Following the announcement, the instant search popularity of Japan on the domestic travel platform Mafengwo.com surged by 350 percent, and the popularity of "Japan visa" increased by 185 percent, with Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and Nara are the top five cities with the highest tourist attention, the platform briefed the Global Times on Thursday.

"Before the pandemic, China was the world's largest outbound tourism market for many years, and Chinese tourists have played a pivotal role in boosting the development of tourism in overseas countries and promoting the recovery of the world economy," Feng Rao, President of Mafengeo Tourism Research Institute, told the Global Times.

Although the summer holiday has come to an end, this new stage of re-opening will have a greater impact on tourists' travel decisions during the upcoming Chinese National Day holidays, and the outbound travel market is expected to peak during October, Feng said.

Data from online travel agency Tongcheng Travel showed that surges for outbound travel to Turkey jumped more than 10-fold on Thursday morning, domestic media outlet Thepaper.com reported.

The newly-added 78 countries include 12 in Asia, 27 in Europe, 18 in Africa and others from North America, South America and Oceania, according to the notice. As of the announcement, China is allowing outbound group tours to 138 countries and reigons.