Jia Xiudong, a senior international affairs researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said, "The new policy reflects that Canada wants to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China, as the country has shown great potential in economy, trade, investment and tourism development."

The move will save frequent travelers the trouble of visiting embassies, which is time-consuming and incurs extra cost, he said.

With more than 100 million overseas trips made by Chinese tourists last year, China has become a hot source of travelers, and countries including the US and Britain have smoothed visa application measures to attract Chinese.

Jiang Yiyi, director of the China Tourism Academy's International Tourism Development Institute, said, "Visa application has always had an important influence on inbound and outbound travel."

Since Jeju Island in the Republic of Korea launched visa-free trips for Chinese citizens in 2008, about 2.8 million Chinese have traveled there annually in recent years, accounting for nearly half of all the country's tourists to the ROK, Jiang said.

Dai Yu, marketing director at online travel agency Ctrip's Tourism Department, said, "We saw growth of more than 50 percent in the number of Chinese tourists to Canada last year."