Mainland Chinese tourists bypass Hong Kong in favour of Taiwan

Taiwan has enjoyed a surge in visitors from the mainland, boosting the island's tourism industry and the airlines that serve it, under the shadow of the street protests in Hong Kong.

The number of mainlanders visiting the island soared more than 70 per cent over the week-long National Day break from a year earlier. Hong Kong, beset by the impact from the Occupy Central protests, managed only a 6.8 per cent boost in numbers from across the border, a sharp drop from the 14.5 per cent rise last year, immigration figures show.

Almost 75,000 mainlanders visited Taiwan during the week, one of the two so-called "golden weeks" for mainland tourists, with the number of individual travellers rising 89 per cent to 44,690, the China National Tourism Administration said.

As much as 95 per cent of available seats on Taiwan-bound flights were filled on the first day of the holiday week, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on its website, adding that international travel in general was gaining popularity.

"More than 1,200 extra flights on international and Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan routes were added during this holiday period," it said. That compares with the addition of about 4,100 flights, or 13.2 million seats, for domestic destinations.

China Southern Airlines said it carried a record 1.65 million passengers on 11,000 flights during the holiday week and increased capacity on international routes by 21 per cent. "More than 220,000 passengers were carried on international routes, up 20 per cent, while domestic traffic only grew 4 per cent," the carrier said.