Solo mainland tourists fall short of estimates

The first batch of about 290 individual mainland tourists allowed into Taiwan arrived on the island a year ago yesterday as part of a scheme designed to boost tourism.

Original estimates said Taiwan would be able to reap an extra NT$9 billion (HK$2.3 billion) to NT$15 billion a year in tourist revenue if 500 to 1,000 mainland tourists arrived on the island each day for individual visits. The island already makes NT$110 billion a year from group visits by mainland tourists.

But those figures now appear to have been far too optimistic, with the number of solo mainland visitors falling far short of expectations.

Figures released by Taiwan's National Immigration Agency show that as of Sunday, 89,007 mainlanders had come to Taiwan for individual visits since the government of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou opened up the island.

That equates to an average of just 244 individual mainland tourists a day, far less than the 1,000 quota.

Taiwan first permitted 500 mainlanders from Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen to visit the island solo on a trial basis last June and doubled that number in February. The mainland also extended the scheme in April to allow residents of six more cities - Chongqing , Nanjing , Hangzhou , Guangzhou and Chengdu - to apply for individual visits to Taiwan.

The mainland also promised to extend the scheme to Jinan, Xian, Fuzhou and Shenzhen by the end of this year, hoping to increase the number of solo visitors significantly and silence mocking voices from the opposition pro-independence camp in Taiwan.