Society
Taiwan to see more mainland tourists in 2010: authorities
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-06 01:47
 |
Large Medium Small |
BEIJING – The number of mainlanders visiting Taiwan is expected to hit 750,000 in 2010, according to the mainland-based Cross-Strait Tourism Exchange Association (CTEA) Friday.
Mainlanders had been keen to visit Taiwan since the start of the year, said a CTEA official, adding a total of 35,000 mainland visitors visited Taiwan during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday alone, which ended on February 19.
The momentum was continuing into March, the official said, without giving further details.
About 606,000 tourists from the Chinese mainland visited the island in 2009, according to CTEA, which estimated spending could reach up to $1.3 billion on the island.
Mainlanders were allowed to visit Taiwan in tour groups in June 2008 when an agreement was signed by the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the island's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), two organizations authorized to handle cross-Strait issues.
The restrictions were further loosened for mainlanders in January 2009 when a joint statement released by the ARATS and SEF reduced the minimum number of a mainland tourist group to Taiwan to five and allowed them to stay for up to 15 days, compared to a maximum of 10 days stated in the 2008's agreement.
The mainland is the second largest source of tourists to Taiwan.
