The travel volume between Kinmen and China’s Fujian Province via the “small three links” last month rose 31.3 percent from the same period last year, the Kinmen County Tourism Department said on Monday.
A total of 189,383 passengers either came from or traveled to Fujian Province, up from 144,204 during the same period last year, the department said, citing National Immigration Agency statistics.
Kinmen’s visitor arrivals from China totaled 43,484, an increase of 12,804, or 41.7 percent, from a year earlier, the department said.
Agency data showed that there were 6,936 Chinese who applied for entry permits on arrival, an increase of 59.9 percent from the same period last year, the department added.
From January to last month, a total of 1,241,640 travelers used the “small three links,” an increase of 105,896, or 9.3 percent, from the same period last year, it said.
During the period, Chinese travelers entering Kinmen totaled 251,068, an increase of 34,930, or 16.1 percent, from the same period last year, while visa-on-arrival travelers totaled 37,353, an increase of 11,454, or 44.2 percent, it said.
The statistics show that the number of Chinese travelers entering Kinmen is definitely increasing, department Director-General Chen Mei-ling (陳美齡) said.
Kinmen’s small and medium-sized tourism-related industries have benefited from the visiting Chinese, who generally come to the county as independent travelers, she said.
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