"The program will expand the island's inbound tourism, but it will also increase the pressure on the stringent capacity of tourist reception, which was insufficiently expanded in the past decade," Ma said.

But he said the pilot program has been successful, as it has boosted tourism and created more options for visitors from the mainland.

Only three out of every 100,000 visitors from the mainland stay illegally in Taiwan, Ma said. It's a sensitive problem that has been kept under control but drawn concerns from both sides.

According to the rules, individual tourists from the mainland are allowed to travel in Taiwan for up to 15 days. People older than 20 must provide evidence of having at least 50,000 yuan ($7,900) in a bank account or an annual income of 120,000 yuan to get a travel permit to the island.

Although mainland tourists are allowed to make their own itineraries on the island, they are banned from 11 activities such as participating in public events with a political end or entering the military defense areas.

Chen Zhengting, a 29-year-old resident of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, said that he would like to travel across the Straits after the tourism program comes into effect, as Fujian and Taiwan are close and share common cultural roots.

"I hope the Taiwan tourism authorities take measures to strengthen travel safety, as several accidents occurred last year injuring mainland tourists," he said.

Fan also said that the mainland welcomes Taiwan's construction of a 5.4-km bridge linking two islands in Kinmen, an archipelago near Xiamen, Fujian, which will encourage more mainland visitors to Taiwan. Construction is scheduled to begin in May.

"We support any effort that will help promote Taiwan's economy and the people's exchanges across the Straits," Fan said.

Last month, Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Wu Po-hsiung, honorary chairman of the Kuomintang party, met in Beijing.

Both leaders called on the two sides to enhance relations through more cultural and economic exchanges, which have laid a solid foundation for closer future cross-Straits exchanges since the KMT's victory in the island's leadership election in January.