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As 2024 European Football Championship has kicked off in Munich, searches for the host country, Germany, have been on the rise in China, industry data showed. The soccer festival is attracting a good number of Chinese travelers heading to Europe. 

Since June, the searches for Germany has tripled compared to May, data from online travel platform Qunar.com sent to the Global Times revealed on Tuesday. 

So far this week, the search popularity of Berlin, the venue for the European Cup final, has increased by 103 percent compared with last week, the travel portal said. 

Data from Qunar.com also showed that during this year's European Cup which runs from June 15 to July 14, international air ticket bookings to Germany had doubled compared to the same period last year; while hotel bookings in Germany increased 1.5 times compared to last year. Hotel prices rose by 25 percent.

Regarding hotel booking volume, Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt are the most popular European Cup host cities. Among them, hotel bookings in Berlin increased by 400 percent compared with the same period last year, and in Munich by 300 percent.

In addition to Germany, the European Football Championship has also fueled travel enthusiasm for other European countries. 

Qunar.com's big data shows that as of the end of July, hotel bookings in Italy have tripled from last year, and the hotel bookings more than tripled in France, Spain, and the UK.

Europe is celebrating soccer and Lufthansa is bringing soccer fans to Germany: From June 14 to July 14, the airlines of Lufthansa Group are recording around 200,000 additional bookings for flights to the venues of the European Football Championship. Numerous additional flights are being added, especially to and from the UK, according to the Lufthansa Group. 

Host Germany kicked off Euro 2024 in a spectacular fashion on Friday. Teams from 24 countries are competing at the soccer festival with 51 matches to be played before the final in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on July 14, according to media reports.

Global Times