More than 60 tourists from east China's coastal Fujian Province set off for Jinmen Islands off Taiwan Tuesday under a deal designed to promote tourism and people-to-people exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

The tourists, traveling in three groups, set out from Heping Dock in Xiamen, a port city facing the island province, aboard the passenger ship "Tong An" Tuesday morning, after a local tourism official announced the formal launch of cross-Straits tourism.

Huang Xiaoyan, director of the Fujian Provincial Tourism Bureau, said the Fujian tourists' Taiwan trip will enhance people-to-people exchanges, cement economic ties across the Taiwan Strait and improve quality of lives for the people in Jinmen.

He said his bureau and service providers in Fujian Province have reached consensus with their counterparts in Jinmen on such details as the tourists' routes, food and accommodation, insurance and settlements of disputes and emergencies.

The eastern Fujian Province has authorized five local travel services to organize tour groups to Jinmen, including the subsidiaries of China Travel Service and China International Travel Service, the Chinese mainland's two largest travel agencies.

Source: Xinhua