TAIPEI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's tourism market remained sluggish despite the summer peak season, with insiders urging the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities to strengthen cross-Strait travel exchanges to revive the struggling sector.

Eastern Taiwan's Hualien -- renowned for its magnificent scenery and cultural attractions -- has long been one of the top destinations for visitors traveling to Taiwan. This summer, however, weekday hotel occupancy fell below 30 percent, highlighting severe challenges the local tourism industry currently faces.

At a whale-watching pier in Hualien Port, many operators continued to offer services, yet numerous vessels were seen remaining docked.

"While tourists from the mainland used to come frequently, now there are almost none," a boat owner told Xinhua. He noted that business was already struggling last year, and this year it has declined by more than 20 percent, making it increasingly difficult to earn a living.

The slump is not limited to Hualien. In Taiwan's southernmost Kenting, another popular tourist destination, the number of visitors has also fallen sharply. A longtime local go-kart operator said his business has been forced to cease operations this summer due to a drastic decline in visitors.

Currently, Taiwan's transportation authorities have lowered this year's estimate of inbound visitors to 9 million. Meanwhile, the proportion of first-time visitors to Taiwan has dropped from 57 percent in 2019 to 46 percent in 2024, according to the agency's statistics.

Tourism experts in Taiwan attribute the island's weak tourism primarily to a sharp drop in visitors from the Chinese mainland.

In 2018, more than 2.65 million mainland tourists visited Taiwan, but numbers have since seen a major drop. In June of this year, only 46,000 mainland visitors arrived, dealing a heavy blow to the revenue of Taiwan's tourism industry.

Facing the severe downturn, industry insiders urged the DPP authorities to heed public opinion and boost cross-Strait travel exchanges to help revive the island's struggling tourism sector.

Although the DPP authorities "claim to promote tourism," they have "put up numerous obstacles" to mainland visitors, people from local tourism, transportation and retail sectors told Xinhua.

The DPP authorities banned mainland residents from visiting Taiwan in 2020, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the pretext. In the meantime, the authorities have continued to discourage Taiwan residents from traveling to the mainland.

In January this year, the mainland announced the resumption of group tours to Taiwan for residents of Shanghai and Fujian, a move widely welcomed by Taiwan's tourism industry and the public. However, the DPP authorities have so far blocked the initiative, citing various reasons.

The mainland has been calling on the DPP authorities to lift the tourism ban on its residents. Early this year, Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the DPP authorities have ignored the plight of Taiwan's tourism industry and the voices of both businesses and the public.

"The key to resuming mainland residents' travel to Taiwan lies in whether the DPP authorities can promptly remove the obstacles they have placed on cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation," said Chen.

The obstruction of mainland tour groups visiting Taiwan amounts to "yet another attempt by the DPP authorities to turn partisan ideology into policy, at the cost of the island's tourism and hospitality industry," Yang Ying-chao, a scholar from the Taiwan-based Ming Chuan University, said in an article.

Cross-Strait tourism has a positive impact on both livelihoods and consumption, said Wu Ying-liang, chairman of Taiwan's travel agent association, adding that further cross-Strait exchanges would benefit tourism operators and the public alike.

Taiwan-based newspaper China Times said in an editorial that the DPP authorities should respect and respond to public opinion by proactively reopening group tours from the Chinese mainland as soon as possible, to rescue Taiwan's tourism market and inject vitality into the island's economy.