Most Taiwan people satisfied with direct flights
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Xinhua, December 28, 2011
More than 70 percent Taiwanese are satisfied with the current direct flight and shipping services across the Taiwan Straits, according to a poll released Tuesday by Taiwan's mainland affairs department.
The poll was conducted by the Election Study Center of Taiwan's "National Chengchi University," which was entrusted by the island's mainland affairs department. Pollsters called 1,069 Taiwanese over the age of 20 between Nov 26 and 30.
The poll shows that 72 percent of the respondents believe that mainland tourists to the island are conducive to Taiwan economy.
More than 48 percent of the surveyed said the current scale of cross-Straits exchanges is "appropriate", whereas 25.7 percent consider it "too fast" and 12.9 percent said that it is "too slow ", the poll indicates.
Starting from June, 558 direct flights are operated each week between 50 destinations across the Straits. Before that, there were 370 flights per week, the mainland affairs department said.
More than 13.84 million passengers took cross-Straits flights between September 2009 and November 2011, according to Taiwan's civil aviation department.
Over the past three years, the mainland has become the largest source of tourists for the island. The number of mainland tourist arrivals exceeded 2.92 million by November 2011 from July 2008, statistics showed.
The inflow of mainland tourists has benefited Taiwan's tourism and hospitality industry, as the island has reaped 150.2 billion New Taiwan dollars ($4.84) earning from mainland visitors, the statistics showed.
