Taiwan and China have reached the agreement that China can start sending tour groups to Taiwan on July 4, a newspaper said on Monday, the dpa reported.
According to the Commercial Times, Taiwanese and Chinese tourism representatives, through unofficial talks, have reached consensus and will sign a formal document in June.
The document will be signed by Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), which handle bilateral ties in the absence of formal ties.
The launch of Chinese tour groups will coincide with the opening of weekend charter flights between Taiwan and China, split since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Taiwan has banned direct air links with China since 1949 for national security reasons, but President Ma Ying-jou, inaugurated on May 20, has called for launching charter flights to ease tension and to revive Taiwan's economy.
The weekend charter flights will be expanded to daily charter flights and eventually to regular flights.
Ma has also called for opening the door to Chinese tourists to boost Taiwan's stagnant tourism industry.
According to the Commercial Times, China plans to send an inaugural tour group to come to Taiwan on the inaugural charter flight.
The inaugural tour group will be headed by Zhang Xiqin, vice chairman of the China National Tourism Administration and include the chiefs of the six Chinese airlines which will take part in the cross charter flight programme, the daily said.
The six Taiwan airlines and six Chinese airlines picked to operate the charter flights are applying for flight permits from Beijing and Taipei respectively, the daily added.
Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Chinese Nationalist Party, will fly to China Monday to discuss cross-strait exchanges, including the charter flights, with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other officials.
Wu is expected to urge China to resume Taipei-Beijing dialogue, which began in 1993 but was suspended by China in 1995 in retaliation against Taiwan's separatist moves, and to ask Beijing to finalize details of the up-coming charter flights and Chinese tourists' coming to Taiwan.