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Dozens of reporters carrying cameras and microphones eagerly waited at one of the Taipei Songshan Airport's exits while a number of satellite-equipped news-gathering vehicles stood by outside the airport on Tuesday.
However, these journalists were not waiting for a celebrity. They were instead waiting for the first group of individual mainland tourists to visit the island after the recent lifting of a travel ban.
A total of 282 mainland tourists are expected to arrive in Taiwan from the mainland cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen on Tuesday as the first tourists to travel to the island as individuals.
Lin Shifa, a 58-year-old tourist from Xiamen, was shocked to face reporters and camera crews as he entered the airport's arrival hall.
"In addition to sightseeing, we want to meet up with my uncle, who lives in the city of Xinbei," said Lin, who is traveling with his 91-year-old mother.
"We never planned to visit Taiwan before because the tour packages that were available did not allow us to arrange our own schedules," he said.
Mainland tourists have only been permitted to travel to Taiwan in groups since July 2008, when a full travel ban was struck down. The ban on individual tourists was itself lifted on June 8, but only for residents of the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.
Lu Ziping and his family are among the tourists leaving for Taiwan on Tuesday. They said they will be visiting one of their relatives in Kaohsiung for the first time ever.
"It's been very convenient to apply for the individual tour packages, and now we can visit our relatives as much as we want," Lu said.
Zhu Hangyu, a 26-year-old resident of Xiamen, plans to stay in Taiwan for three days. She is particularly excited to check out the Taipei Palace Museum and one of the island's night markets.
"I hate traveling in tour packages. You have to get up early and strictly follow their schedule. That's why I waited until now to visit Taiwan," Zhu said.
Ma Zhiqiang, general manager of the mainland-based Xiamen Chunhui International Travel Service, said young and middle-aged people have been more interested in the individual tours.
"Young backpackers don't like to be restricted to group tour schedules, and they prefer to avoid crowded scenic spots and choose personalized itineraries," Ma said.
Elderly tourists prefer individual tours because the individual tour schedules allow them to spend more time with their relatives, said Chen Lianbao, an executive with the Xiamen C&D International Travel Service.
Taipei's tourism department held a welcoming ceremony at the airport to receive the tourists, gifting them with souvenirs and coupons for local hotels and spas.
"We expect that more than 170,000 mainland individual tourists will visit Taipei annually. If each of them stays in Taipei for seven days, they should bring in at least 2.4 billion New Taiwan dollars (84 million U.S. dollars) in revenue," Chao Hsin-ping, the city's tourism chief, said at the ceremony.
Chao said that traveling on an individual basis will allow mainland tourists to spend more time meeting local people and get to know the island better.
Taiwan's tourism department said they will provide travel manuals for every mainland tourist arriving on the island. The manual will include detailed information pertaining to travel permits, weather, currency and customs regulations.
The island's tourism department will also work with local authorities to improve public transportation services between tourist sites and main terminals, said David Hsieh, deputy head of Taiwan's tourism department.
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