TAIPEI - Around 72 percent of Taiwanese respondents believe Taiwan's economy will benefit from the island's opening up to independent tourists from the Chinese mainland, a survey has shown.

The survey, released by the Mainland Affairs Council under Taiwanese authorities Thursday, says nearly 68.2 percent of the Taiwanese public have shown support for the policy that allows more mainland tourists to travel to Taiwan as independent tourists.

Taiwan first opened its doors to independent tourists from three mainland cities on June 28 last year. As of March this year, over 58,000 mainland residents had traveled to the island.

According to a recent deal reached by the mainland's Association for Tourism Exchanges Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan's Taiwan Strait Tourism Association, such tours will be available to residents from 10 more mainland cities within this year. Moreover, the quota for mainland independent tourists to Taiwan will be increased to 1,000 per day from the current 500.

As indicated by the survey, 71 percent of those polled voiced their support for institutional talks in settling cross-Straits issues.

Meanwhile, 45 percent of respondents think the progress of cross-Straits exchanges is "proper," 32.6 percent deem the progress "too quick," and 11.9 percent view it as "too slow."

The survey was conducted by the Election Study Center under Taiwan-based Chengchi University between March 30 to April 2 this year. The poll collected 1,079 valid samples, and had a confidence level of 95 percent with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.98 percentage points.