TAIPEI: Tourists from the Chinese mainland are believed to have spent more than $1.13 billion in Taiwan since the island lifted the travel ban on mainlanders in June 2008.

Taiwan authorities said Thursday that nearly 650,000 mainlanders had visited the island by the end of 2009, bringing huge business to local tourism-related industries.

The island's tourism authorities predicted earlier this month that there would be up to 4,000 mainland visitors a day to the island during this lunar new year holiday.

They also voiced optimism that mainlanders' travel applications to Taiwan could be handled more efficiently in the future when the two sides set up tourism representative offices.

It was not yet known when exactly the offices could start operation. A mainland spokesman said in January they were likely to be opened around the lunar new year, which fell on February 14.

Mainlanders were allowed to visit Taiwan in tour groups since June 2008 when an agreement was signed by the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the island's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), two organizations authorized to handle cross-Strait issues.

The mainland is now the second largest source of tourists to Taiwan.

Ties across the Taiwan Strait have warmed in the past two years with intensified talks aimed at normalizing economic, trade and investment relations.