Tibet Autonomous Region hosted a record 3.72 million tourists
over the first 10 months of the year, well over a million more than
the total for the whole of last year.
The flood of tourists brought the region 4.4 billion yuan (about
US$550 million).
"The plateau is of great appeal to overseas tourists - one out
of ten tourists were from overseas, said Wu Yingjie, deputy
chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government during a
recent interview with a three-member press delegation from the
Russian Information Agency (RIA).
The huge leap in the number of visitors can be attributed to the
opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway on July 1, 2006, according to
He Benyun, deputy head of the Regional Development and Reform
Commission.
The tourism sector had 2.5 million tourists last year and raked
in 2.77 billion yuan (about US$346 million) in total earnings,
accounting for 9.6 percent of the region's gross domestic product
(GDP).
The Tibet regional government set a target of 3.8 million
tourists for 2007, a figure that now seems certain to be
exceeded.
Industry experts predict more than four million tourists will
visit the area this year and the sector will account for 12 percent
of Tibet's GDP.
At the invitation of Xinhua News Agency, the RIA press
delegation visited Beijing and Tibet between November 1 and 10,
with the purpose of finding more about Tibet, such as information
regarding reform and development, economic construction, minority
nationalities and religion.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2007)
