Beijing said it would suspend the issuance of permits for individual Chinese tourists to travel to Taiwan ahead of a divisive election on the island which threatens to increase tensions with the mainland. 

"Due to current cross-strait relations, its has been decided to suspend the individual travel pilot scheme for mainland residents from 47 cities to Taiwan from August 1," China's ministry of culture and tourism said in a statement on Wednesday.

Chinese mainland visitors were the largest group of tourists in Taiwan last year, with 2.46m people making the cross-strait trip in the year to November, according to Chinese media. But that was far below the 4.1 million visitors Taiwan received from mainland China in 2015 under the Beijing-friendly administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou.