BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland supports individual tourists from selected mainland cities traveling to Taiwan on a trial basis, said a mainland official Wednesday.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks at a press conference in Beijing Wednesday when asked to comment on progress in promoting individual travel in Taiwan.

"Liberating individual travel to Taiwan will help boost cross-Strait people-to-people exchanges," said Fan. "Hopefully, both sides across the Strait can make efforts to facilitate this."

Since July 2008, Taiwan has allowed mainland tourists to travel on package tours with a stay up to 15 days. A total of 600,000 mainlanders visited Taiwan last year, and this year's figure is expected to hit 1.5 million.