By the end of December 2011, more than 3 million tourists from the Chinese mainland had visited Taiwan since they were allowed to do so in July 2008, according to Taiwan's "Mainland Affairs Council."
The council estimated that each mainland tourist spent nearly 263.1 U.S. dollars each day on the island and stayed for 6.5 days on average, bringing a total of more than 5 billion U.S. dollars in profits to the island's tourism sector.
The council said that Taiwan had increased the daily quota of mainland tourists from 3,000 to 4,000 on Jan. 1, 2011.
Since Taiwan opened its door to mainland individual tourists on June 22, 2011, nearly 38,550 individual tourists from the mainland had been approved to visit the island as of Dec. 31, 2011. Nearly 29,190 already visited the island, and none of them illegally prolonged their visit.