8 more Chinese cities to join individual tourist program: official

In a two-day meeting that ended in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon, representatives of the Taipei-based Taiwan Straits Tourism Association and the Beijing-headquartered Cross-Strait Tourism Association reached a consensus to expand the scope of the individual tourism program, allowing residents from 11 Chinese cities to visit Taiwan as individual travelers, up from the existing three cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.

Hsieh Wei-chun, deputy director of the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, said the timetable for the expansion of the individual tourist program and the eight additional cities won't be publicized until after they are approved by competent authorities across the Taiwan Strait.

Such Chinese cities as Tianjin, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chongqing are expected to be allowed into the program.

Hsieh said the selection of the new pilot Chinese cities whose residents are allowed to make individual trips to Taiwan is determined based on the regional balance, economic development, and travel performance records of candidate cities.

As to whether the maximum daily number of individual tourists to Taiwan from mainland China will be boosted or directly doubled from the existing 500, Hsieh continued, it will be up to the government here to make the final decision.

The program, which kicked off last June, allows up to 500 people from Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen to visit Taiwan per day without having to be part of a tour group.

According to statistics compiled by the National Immigration Agency (NIA), a total of 41,382 Chinese visitors came to Taiwan through the program from June 22, 2011 to Feb. 7, 2012, translating into an average of 184, still far from the original daily quota of 500.

But the average daily number of Chinese visitors approved to make individual trips in Taiwan surged to 365 in November and 476 in December. The figure declined to 349 in January due to the Chinese New Year holiday, but is expected to rebound significantly to 450 in February.

Just one week earlier, President Ma Ying-jeou said the number of Chinese cities whose residents are allowed to visit Taiwan as individual tourists “will be increased from three to 11 from March” to maintain Taiwan's tourism growth.

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