In Taiwan the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has said that though the number of Chinese tourists has risen steadily, it was expected to grow even more once Taiwan and China swap offices governing tourism and travel affairs.
Between July 2008 and Dec. 31 last year, 26,488 Chinese tour groups – a total of 646,783 people – visited Taiwan, mostly on eight-day, seven-night tours.
With daily individual spending estimated at US$250, the tourists have contributed roughly US$1.13 billion to the economy.
However, the number of Chinese tourists has not reached the average quota of 3,000 per day although it did reach that figure last April and May. An official states the average number of inbound Chinese tourists now stands at about 2,000 daily.
Taipei Times reports that Chinese were the second largest group of foreign visitors to Taiwan last year. Japanese were first, with 972,213 arrivals, including 606,174 tourists.