TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Searches for Taiwan travel products on Klook have increased 2.5 times after the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced Tuesday (Feb. 14) that Taiwan will reopen to Hong Kong and Macao residents who travel individually to the country.

MAC Deputy Minister Liang Wen-jie (梁文傑) announced Tuesday that in order to promote healthy and orderly exchanges after the pandemic, applications for individual travel to Taiwan by residents from Hong Kong and Macau will be resumed from 9:00 a.m. on February 20, CNA reported.

This news has spurred the interest of many Hong Kong and Macau tourists to travel to Taiwan for sightseeing. Klook, an online travel agency for tours and activities, said in an interview with the media that according to the platform’s data, the traffic of Hong Kong and Macau users searching for Taiwanese products on Klook has soared by more than 2.5 times since Monday.

According to Klook, the data initially showed that the top two products that Hong Kong and Macau tourists paid attention to were "hotel accommodation" and "self-drive car rental." The third popular item was the Taiwan High Speed Rail tickets and other transportation tickets. Compared to tourists from other countries, tourists from Hong Kong and Macao prefer Taiwanese food, exhibitions, and hot spring experiences.

Taiwanese travel e-commerce platform KKday shared that as Taiwan is geologically close to Hong Kong and Macau, and there is no language barrier, it has always been one of the most popular overseas destinations for Hong Kong and Macau tourists.

Hong Kong and Macau tourists also ranked third among KKday overseas tourists visiting Taiwan before the pandemic, and their favorite products are suburban tours, transportation tickets, one-day tours with chartered cars, special experiences, and gourmet dining, the platform said, per CNA.