Taiwan to attract more mainland tourists  

赴台个人游有望增5-10个试点城市 最快6月底开始

据台湾《经济日报》报道，台湾行政机构日前大动作宣布提振景气措施，其中缩短环评时间、扩大大陆客观光、技术入股减免税最受市场关注。据了解，三大亮点政策中的“扩大试点城市增加陆客来台自由行人数”将率先上阵。

(ECNS) -- Taiwan is set to open its doors to individual tourists from more mainland cities, the Taiwan-based Economic Daily News reported on Thursday.

According to a cross-Straits agreement, 5 to 10 more mainland cities will join the program of individual tours for mainland residents. The list is expected to be released by the end of June.

Ningbo (Zhejiang province), Kunming (Yunnan province), Dalian (Liaoning province), Zhengzhou (Henan province) and Wuhan (Hubei province) are most likely to join the program.

In addition, Wuxi (Jiangsu province), Changsha (Hunan province), Zhuhai (Guangdong province), Harbin (Heilongjiang province), Changchun(Jilin province) and Shenyang (Liaoning province), may also be included.

The move is expected to stimulate airline and tourism services.

The Taiwan side says it expects the market for individual tourism to grow quickly. Passenger volume will be increased to 3,000 individuals from the current 2,000, it predicts.

Officials from Taiwan confirmed on Wednesday that both sides have already agreed on the list of cities to be added to the program, adding that mainland package tour agencies will have time to prepare for the new program before it officially takes effect.

Taiwan first opened its doors to independent tourists from three mainland cities (Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen) on June 28, 2011.

In 2012, another 10 mainland cities (Chengdu, Tianjin, Nanjing, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Ji'nan, Xi'an, Fuzhou and Shenzhen) joined the program.

More than 2.63 million mainland residents visited Taiwan in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 42.6 percent, among which 1.97 million were tourists (including 190,000 individual tourists and 1.78 million package tourists).

The number of individual tourists to the island in the first quarter of this year exceeded 90,000, up 200 percent compared with the same period last year.

As more mainland cities embrace the program, that number is expected to rise,according to Man Hongwei, director of the Taipei Office of the Association For Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits.