Copyright 2024 - Ningbo Life / Ningbo Expat

Taiwan to see more mainland individual tourists

Residents of ten additional Chinese mainland cities will be allowed to travel to Taiwan as independent tourists, according to a deal reached between organizations from both sides of the Strait on Sunday. So far, residents in the four municipalities, two special economic zones, and seven capital cities are permitted to visit Taiwan individually.

Mainland tourists have brought huge profits to Taiwan’s sightseeing sector. Statistics from Taiwan show mainland tourists have create a revenue of more than 167.3 billion yuan NT for Taiwan.

To further expand the market, the two sides cross the Strait held several round of talks and reached the agreement to allow residents from Tianjin, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Jinan, Xi'an, Fuzhou and Shenzhen to visit Taiwan as individual tourists.

Taiwan tourism industry warmly responded to the announcement. "This is a big gift to Taiwan," said the Xu Shuling, director of Taiwan Association of Travel Agency. Bai Zhongren, head of Taiwan Travel Industry Association, said: "we are looking forward to the policy, and it will definitely deepen the communication between people on both sides."

Wu Jinfeng, deputy director of the Beijing Office of Taiwan Strait Tourism Association, said on Sunday, the office would soon send delegates to the newly approved cities and co-organized activities with the local tourism authorities. They plan to publicize and promote information on the individual visit to Taiwan.

She added that mainland tourists to Taiwan on individual tours could visit their official website (www.tsta-bj.org) for more information on attractions, accommodation, transport, catering and procedures to get the permit.

China’s east Zhejiang province has the largest number of tourists to Taiwan in 2011. Xu Peng, Deputy Director of Zhejiang Tourism Bureau, said that the increase of the pilot cities showed individual tour is more and more popular among mainland tourists. It has a huge potential market in the future

f t g m