Taiwan hotels make more money from mainland visitors

Nearly 40 percent of surveyed hotels in Taiwan said mainland tourists have generated more than 20 percent of their total revenue, according to a report on Wednesday.

The survey by Hotels.com, a global online hotel service, was conducted among more than 3,000 mainland tourists and 3,000 hotel operators worldwide.

In 2013, 97 million mainlanders traveled overseas, 14 million more than 2012.

With the growing number of mainland travelers, 41.5 percent of people in Taiwan's hotel industry anticipated that mainland tourists will grow by 11 percent to 25 percent in three years, said the report.

According to Taiwan authorities, in the first half of 2014, the number of individual mainland visitors surpassed 500,000 and it is expected to exceed one million by the end of this year.

Among surveyed mainlanders, more than 60 percent respondents prefer individual traveling, and Taiwan is mainlanders' ninth favorite destination.