China's Taiwan Affairs director Tuesday said he hopes tourists will soon be able to visit the island.

Chen Yunlin made the comments in Shanghai at the end of Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan's eight-day trip to the mainland, the state-run agency Xinhua reported.

Xinhua quoted Chen as saying "relevant departments will soon allow mainland residents to tour Taiwan.

Removal of the travel ban will expand not only people-to-people contacts between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, but will be conducive to boosting tourism, food and beverage and other industries, bringing concrete benefits to the general public on Taiwan, he added.

Taiwanese made over 3.6 million trips to China in 2004, up 34.9 percent over 2003. In contrast, mainland residents made 145,000 trips to Taiwan in the same period, an increase of 14.2 percent.

A total 33 million trips to the mainland have been made since the Taiwan government allowed citizens to visit the mainland beginning in 1987.