New landing visa rules for mainland Chinese travelers to the Taiwanese-controlled Kinmen islands just off the coast of Fujian province in China have boosted traffic by double digits.

The new visa policy came into effect on 1 January for entry into the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen, Penghu and Matsu from 36 key cities in China. Duty free and travel retailer Ever Rich tells TRBusiness that in the first 10 days of January it saw a +16% increase in tourists numbers compared to the same period in 2014.

“We will have more accurate numbers of tourists in February but we expect there will be more and more tourists from mainland China, thus bringing more travellers to our plaza,” says a spokesperson for the company.

Since its soft opening in May 2014 in Kinhu town on Big Kinmen, the Ever Rich Plaza (above) – which last month saw the addition of a 5-star hotel (left) – has been popular with foreign tourists says the retailer.

The Taiwanese government wants to attract more visitors and investment to its outlying islands, hence the lifting of restrictions. Ferry services between the islands and ports in Fujian are called mini-links and passenger arrivals through these services reached almost 1m in the first eight months of 2014 according to Radio Taiwan International.