The number of mainland visitors traveling to Taiwan reached 1.09 million as of December 3,2010 and the total is expected to reach 1.2 million by the end of 2010 according to Yang Yi, a spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.

Yang said that the number of mainland visitors had grown rapidly since the beginning of this year. Expanding cross-strait tourism cooperation is mutually beneficial for people across the Taiwan Strait and is line with the development of peaceful cross-strait relationship.

The opening of self-organized individual tours for mainland tourists will benefit the communication between residents cross the strait and should be promoted, Yang said.

Taiwan is expected to allow individual mainland tourists to travel to the island in January 2011. The new policy will first be applied to business travelers from Shanghai and Beijing, and will then be extended to those from other mainland cities.

Taiwan's travel market was opened to group tours of mainland residents in July 2008.

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