TAIPEI -- More than 304,000 tourists from the Chinese mainland visited Taiwan in the first two months of 2012, hitting a record bimonthly high and registering a robust 39.9 percent year-on-year growth, the island's tourism department announced Thursday.

Taiwan saw around 990,000 tourists from outside the island in the same period, also registering a record bimonthly high on that count. Tourists were mostly from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Macao, and countries such as Japan, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and France, according to the department.

Since an overall ban on mainlanders' traveling to the island was lifted by Taiwanese authorities in July 2008, the island has become a favorite destination for mainlanders.

The Chinese mainland is currently the major source of tourists to Taiwan. In 2011, more than 1.78 million mainland residents visited the island, a year-on-year increase of 9.4 percent, taking up nearly one-third of the 6.08 million visitors it received last year, according to Taiwan's tourism department.