The Mainland tourists have generated over 60 billion NT dollars of income for Taiwan for the past two years, with an estimation of about 3000 travelers coming to the island every single day.

The visits have significantly hiked up Taiwan's economy, but on the downside, it has increased the workload for Immigration Department, created more damages at tourist locations, and started a price battle between tour agencies in order to attract more vacationers.

The Immigration Department has been working overtime to match data, stamp approvals, and issue entry permits to visitors from Mainland China.

Starting from July, the number of permits issued each day has been limited to 7200.

However, tour agencies say that the approval process is too complicated, and the problem can't be solved by merely placing a limit.

According statistics from the Tourism Bureau, in the two years that Taiwan has opened up tourism access to the Mainland Chinese, over 1.28 million Mainlanders have visited Taiwan, generating an income of over 60 billion dollars. Currently, 3000 Mainland Chinese visit Taiwan every day, creating a traffic jams and shortages in tour buses and hotel vacancies.

Natural scenic spots are also continously being damaged by so many visitors. Visitors will reach out to touch the renowned Yeliou Queen Stone despite being told not to.

Many have carved words on natural stones, others are leaving garbage behind. Managing such a huge number of visitors is difficult, but because visitors bring income, tour agencies are only focusing on attracting more tourists. The Tourism Bureau's rule of US$60 daily reception fee is also not enforced, with many agencies offering only US$20.

As the quality of the tour packages similarly are hard to control, the government is considering allowing independent travel.

But with so many policies from the government, many are worried the market will be unstable.

While most are keeping an upbeat attitude about the possibility of independent travel for Mainland Chinese tourists, many are still worried about the safety and control problems that may arise from the upsurge of visitors. This is something the tourism industry will have to be prepared for in the future.

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