Taiwan said Tuesday a record 619,000 international visitors came to the island in November, boosted by a nearly 30 percent increase of arrivals from China.

The November figures broke the previous monthly record of 550,000 in April and was up 17.1 percent from the same month last year, said the tourism bureau.

A record 213,000 Chinese visitors arrived in November for business and leisure, up 29 percent from a year earlier while the number of Japanese travellers also rose 23 percent to a record 130,500, it said.

The bureau said promotional campaigns managed to attract more tourists from the United States, Europe and other Asian countries who were originally bound for flood-hit Thailand.

International visitors in the first 11 months reached 5.43 million, compared with a record high of 5.5 million for the whole year 2010, it said.

Last year, China replaced Japan to become Taiwan's largest source of visitors, after the island's economy-minded government in 2008 relaxed rules on mainland travellers.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war but Beijing considers the island part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

China's HNA drops bid for Spain's NH hotels: company
Madrid (AFP) Dec 13, 2011 - Chinese airline group HNA has abandoned its purchase of a 20-percent stake in Spanish hotel chain NH because of financial market turbulence, the Spanish company said on Tuesday.

"Faced with the volatility and uncertainty of the current financial situation, HNA has decided not to begin executing the investment agreement according to the agreed calendar," NH said in a statement to the Madrid stock exchange.

"Yesterday the board of NH Hotels agreed to terminate the investment agreement," with HNA paying the Spanish firm $15 million (11 million euros) in compensation for breaking the deal, it added.

NH said the companies left open the possibility of resuming the merger, under which they would jointly set up hotels in China and channel passengers on HNA's airlines to NH Hotels.

"HNA has confirmed its intention to continue conversations with NH Hotels Group in order to reach a possible strategic alliance between the two groups" along these lines, the statement said.

NH is Europe's third-biggest business hotel chain. HNA is China's fourth-biggest airline group, owner of Hainan Airlines and a big stake in Hong Kong Airlines.

The deal was struck in May but in October NH was forced to drop the price of the stake from 431.6 million euros to 329.8 million euros (from $570 million to $435 million), citing stock market declines during the eurozone debt crisis.

After Monday's announcement NH shares plunged 10.25 percent on the Madrid stock exchange in early trading.

China is one of the world's fastest-growing tourism markets and overtook Spain last year as the world's third most visited country, according to figures from the UN World Tourism Organisation.