Mainland individual tourists to Taiwan surge

BEIJING - The number of individual tourists from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan more than doubled to 615,000 in the first seven months of this year, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Individual tourists, those not with travel agencies, rose more than 147 percent, making up a third of the 1.88 million tourists to visit between January and July.

Overall, tourism to Taiwan rose by 45 percent. Packaged tour group visitors reached 1.26 million, up 21 percent, said Ma Xiaoguang of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office at a press conference.

Taiwan authorities opened its door to group tourists from the mainland in 2008 and to individual tourists in June 2011.

The spokesman said cross-Strait personnel exchanges have maintained sound development in the first seven months with the total number of visits made across the Taiwan Strait reaching 5.32 million, up 15.35 percent year on year.

"We hope that related authorities on both sides can adopt active and effective measures to further regulate the tourism market and improve its quality of service," Ma said.