Mainland to allow all residents to visit Taiwan
Originally published by Taiwan Today,01 june 2010
Restrictions prohibiting residents living in certain parts of mainland China from visiting Taiwan will be lifted July 18, according to mainland Chinese tourism officials.
The announcement, which should result in more mainland tourists visiting the island, was welcomed by officials from Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications May 31.
“We hope the new policy will be implemented as soon as possible,” said Wayne Hsi-lin Liu, chief secretary of the bureau.
Liu added that in anticipation of an added influx of tourists, the government is drawing up plans to modify current rules so that in the future a maximum of 1.5 million mainland Chinese visitors will be allowed to visit Taiwan per year.
According to Liu, roughly 980,000 mainland tourists visited Taiwan in 2009, including 585,000 group tourists, 300,000 business travelers and officials with large delegations, and roughly 100,000 individuals who came to visit relatives or for other reasons.
In the first four months of 2010, by contrast, 350,000 mainland group tourists have already visited the island, one and a half times more than during the same period last year, Liu noted.
If this trend continues, more than 900,000 group tourists could end up visiting Taiwan in 2010. And if business travelers and officials are added to this number, as many as 1.5 million tourists could visit Taiwan this year, he said.
Current mainland regulations stipulate that residents in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Gansu Province, Qinghai Province, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are still banned from visiting Taiwan.
On July 18, 2008, mainland China allowed residents from 13 provinces and municipalities to visit Taiwan. In February 2009, the number of places permitted visits to Taiwan was expanded to 25. With the latest lifting of restrictions, residents in all 31 mainland Chinese provinces, municipalities and special autonomous regions will be allowed to visit the island. (HZW)