Chinese tourists have avoided touring Tibet during the National Day holiday this year. As a result, tourism revenue fell by nearly 40 per cent in Tibet over the week-long holiday because of rioting and unrest in the region earlier this year, state media said on Monday.
The number of tourist arrivals fell by 36 per cent year-on-year to 257,000 during the one-week holiday, which ended on Sunday, the government's Xinhua news agency quoted a regional tourism official as saying. Only 110,900 tourists stayed overnight in the region, down 41.5 per cent from last year, the agency said. The tourism revenue for the National Day holiday reached 81.49 million yuan (11.88 million dollars), 38.9 per cent lower than last year, it quoted Zhanor, the deputy head of the regional tourism bureau, as saying. Zhanor said the sharp drop followed unrest among Tibetans, which has continued since rioting in the regional capital Lhasa in March. 'But tourist confidence in traveling in Tibet is returning according to the situation in the previous months and the region's tourism is recovering,' Zhanor said.
Some information for this report was provided by DPA, XINHUA and Reuters.