BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said Friday it would restart some group tours to Taiwan “in the near future,” a boost to a travel industry still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The culture and tourism ministry said residents of Shanghai and the southeastern province of Fujian — which lies just across the strait from Taiwan — would be able to travel to the self-ruled island, without giving a specific timeline.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to unify with it one day.

In recent years, Beijing has sought to diplomatically isolate Taipei and ramped up military pressure by staging major drills around the island.

Leaders from both sides have maintained restrictions on travel across the strait, even though their populations share strong social, cultural and family ties.

The culture and tourism ministry said resuming some tours to Taiwan would “promote the interests and wellbeing of compatriots on both sides of the strait.”

It added that the move was in response to expectations from Taiwan’s tourism industry and would “further promote the normalization of cross-strait personnel exchanges.”

Taiwan last year lifted restrictions on some individual mainland tourists, but large-scale group tours have yet to resume.

Earlier this month, President Lai Ching-te accused China of being the barrier to cross-strait exchanges and called for talks between their respective tourism associations to ease restrictions.

“The government welcomes mainland tourists to travel to Taiwan,” Taipei’s top policy body on China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said Friday, adding it was waiting for China to announce “specific measures.”

“We... will communicate on the safety, quality, and stability of tourism as soon as possible via the two (tourism) agencies to facilitate the smooth implementation of resuming tourism exchanges in the future,” MAC said.