Tourism Rep Offices to Facilitate Cross-Straits Exchanges

Taiwan has now established the-first-of-it's-kind tourism representative office on the Chinese mainland to coordinate cross-Strait tourism.

And with the mainland set to set up a similar office on the island this week, experts are predicting the moves will only help increase the relationship between the two sides of the strait.

Wu Jia has more.

Reporter:

Wu Bihu, a professor from Peking University, hails the establishment of Taiwan's tourism representative office on the mainland.

"The exchange of tourism representative offices across the Taiwan Straits is conducive to the promotion of each side's tourist destinations and the improvement of tourism service quality. It will be convenient for the offices to gather information about each side's tourism markets and provide them to each other precisely and immediately."

Located in downtown Beijing, the office belongs to the Taiwan Straits Tourism Association. It will provide services for tourists from both sides, with a focus on tourism consultation, advertising and dispute resolution.

Yang Ruizong, head of the office, expects a boom in tourists from the mainland to Taiwan.

"We are aiming at attracting 750,000 or even 1 million tourists from the mainland to Taiwan this year. We hope that mainland residents will make more and more visits to Taiwan to enjoy its natural beauty."

Lee Ming Huei, President of Taiwan Hospitality and Tourism College, says tourism cooperation can play an important role in the overall cross-Straits relations.

"Sight-seeing tourism can deepen the understanding between compatriots across the Taiwan Straits. With increased visits made by mainland residents to Taiwan and Taiwan residents to the mainland, I believe cross-Straits exchanges will be more frequent and closer. This, in turn, will contribute to a harmonious development of the two sides."

Taiwan lifted its ban on mainland tourists in June 2008.

The Chinese mainland has become the second largest source of tourists to Taiwan. Last year alone, about 600,000 mainland tourists visited the island, bringing 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in revenue to the local tourism industry.

For CRI, I'm Wu Jia.