Tourism cooperation between China's mainland and Taiwan has achieved fruitful results and aims to attract mainland tourists to visit the island, a mainland official said Friday.

"Tourism departments of the two sides are preparing to welcome tour groups from the Chinese mainland who want to visit Taiwan," said Liu Kezhi, a senior official with the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) on Friday's press conference.

New regulations governing travel to Taiwan by Chinese mainland residents is expected to released soon.

Statistics from the CNTA show that the Chinese mainland hosted 4.11 million visits by Taiwan residents last year.

Liu said Taiwan is strengthening its status as the mainland's important tourist source.

Meanwhile, the mainland authorized a "cross-Straits tourism cooperation association" as the mainland's nongovernmental tourism organization to discuss cross-Straits tourism issues with Taiwan NGOs.

On May 20 of 2005, the administration held a press conference on mainland travelers to Taiwan. On September 10 of 2005, a forum on mainland travelers to Taiwan was held in the Wuyi Mountain, Fujian Province, at which the two sides reached consensus on promoting cross-Straits traveling.

From Oct. 28 to Nov. 6, last year, Shao Qiwei, head of the China Tourism Association led the inspection group to visit Taiwan, which was an important step to pave the way for opening tourist routes to the island, Liu said.

The mainland also invited tourism sectors in Taiwan to display their tourism products in China International Tourism Festival held in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province on Nov. 23, 2005, which was the first time the Taiwan tourism sectors to participate in the festival.

Liu acknowledged that Taiwan participation in the festival created a new channel for cross-Straits dialogue, thus turning a new leaf in mainland-Taiwan tourism exchange.

Representatives from both sides joined the first Cross-Straits Tourist Expo held in Xiamen on Sep. 8, 2005, east China's Fujian Province, at which abundant tourism resources across the Taiwan Straits were introduced and a new platform was set up to discuss tourism issues by the two sides, said Liu.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2006)