The decision by Brazil to grant visa-free entry to Chinese citizens from May 11 immediately triggered a surge in travel searches for destinations including Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, Chinese online travel platform Qunar said on Thursday.

Under the policy announced by Brazil's government on Thursday, holders of ordinary Chinese passports will be allowed to enter Brazil visa-free for short stays of up to 30 days.

The announcement by Brazil's foreign ministry prompted a sharp rise in searches for flights from China to Brazil, according to data from Qunar.

As of 8:30 pm Beijing time on Thursday, searches for flights to Rio de Janeiro had doubled from the previous hour and nearly tripled from a week earlier, the platform said. Searches for flights to Brasilia jumped threefold from the previous hour and surged 4.5 times from a week earlier.

The top five Chinese departure cities searching for flights to Brazil were Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Guangzhou in Guangdong and Chengdu in Sichuan, Qunar data showed.

Searches for flights on the Beijing-Rio de Janeiro route soared 6.8 times from the previous hour, while searches for flights from Shanghai and Chengdu to Brasilia each rose more than tenfold from a week earlier.

Yang Han, a researcher at Qunar's big data research institute, said Brazil has become one of the fastest-growing long-haul outbound destinations for Chinese travelers in recent years, helped by its reputation for cultural diversity.

During the just-concluded May Day holiday, Brazil ranked among the top 10 outbound travel destinations for Chinese tourists, with flight bookings from China to Brazil rising 95 percent year-on-year, Yang said.

Bookings for flights to Sao Paulo increased 1.3 times from a year earlier, placing the city among the fastest-growing outbound destinations during the holiday period, according to the platform.

Yang said the visa waiver could make Brazil a popular choice for Chinese tourists during the upcoming summer vacation period and the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays later this year.

In late January, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had announced visa-free entry for certain short-term visits by Chinese citizens in what analysts viewed as a reciprocal gesture to China's own visa-free policy for Brazilian nationals.

China's policy, effective until May 31, allows Brazilian passport holders to enter China visa-free for up to 30 days for business, tourism, family visits and transit.