There has been an escalating number of Mainland tourists visiting Taiwan through direct ships to Keelung and Taichung harbors, but not in Kaohsiung.

However, the local travel agencies remain positive about the tourism market.

During May of this, a cruise ship docked at Kaohsiung harbor, bringing 300 Mainland Chinese tourists on the maiden voyage to Kaohsiung from Chinese ports. With the direct route for ships, those in the travel industry are looking forward to the market.

For Keelung harbor, the passenger number this year so far is more than 26,000, a growth rate of 1,000 percent when compared to last years numbers, while 9,000 passengers entered Taiwan through Taichung Harbor, a growth rate of 5 times the amount.

However, no other ships docked in Kaohsiung after May.

Even with the number of chartered cruise ship to Kaohsiung, passenger numbers to Kaohsiung are less than 7,000 people.

Recently, Kaohsiung harbor has been aggressively promoting more direct route from China and even signed an agreement with Xiamen, but still, the effort didn't work as well as expected.

Those in the travel industry believe that the problem is lack of communication and negotiation between the two sides of the strait while they are still optimistic about the future market.

It is expected that more than 1.5 million Mainland travelers will visit Taiwan this year with the number expected to increase in the future.

Travel agents believe that air transportation is not enough thus more efforts need to be spend on oceanic routes

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