First batch of individual tourists leaves mainland for Taiwan

About 290 people from the mainland left for Taiwan on Tuesday as the first batch of mainland individual tourists.Sixty-one tourists aboard the flight No. CA185, which took off in Beijing at 8:35 Tuesday, are expected to arrive at Taipei at 11:45 a.m..Meanwhile, tourists from China's top industrial city of Shanghai and Xiamen, a port city of southeast China's Fujian Province, also left for the island either by plane or ship.

The mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) exchanged written documents on Friday to confirm the schedule of the pilot travel program for mainland individual tourists, which was believed would boost the tourism industry in Taiwan.According to the agreement, the initial phase of the travel program applies to residents of the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.

The island became a popular travel destination for mainland tourists after Taiwan lifted a travel ban for mainland group visitors in July 2008.The number of Chinese mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan in groups totaled 2.34 million as of the end of May, bringing an estimated 110 billion New Taiwan dollars (3.8 billion U.S. dollars) to the island.

Source = xinhuanet