Tibet plans receiving 61 million tourists annually, tourism revenue of $10 billion by 2025
Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region witnessed a strong recovery in tourism in the first half of this year.
The region recorded 17.58 million trips made by visitors in the first six months this year, up 110.9 percent year on year, while its tourism revenue rose by 138.1 percent to 17.95 billion yuan (about 2.8 billion U.S. dollars), said the regional tourism development department.
Compared with the same period of 2019, the number of tourists was up 31 percent and tourism revenue rose 20 percent.
Airports in Tibet handled 3.07 million passengers in the six-month period, up 13 percent from 2019.
The opening of the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway, Tibet’s first electrified railway, on June 25 has injected new vitality into the development of Tibetan tourism, the department said.
A new railway that began operations last month in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region linking regional capital Lhasa with the city of Nyingchi is expected to contribute to strong tourism development as it brings convenience to visitors.
In June, Nyingchi received 1.24 million tourists, up 15.33 percent from 2019, the year before the COVID-19 epidemic, according to figures released by the city’s tourism development bureau.
The opening of the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway, Tibet’s first electrified railway, will bring new opportunities to tourism development, the bureau said.
The railway officially began operations on June 25. Compared with road transportation, it reduces the travel time from Lhasa to Nyingchi from 5 hours to about 3.5 hours.
Tibet has set a target of receiving 61 million tourists annually and generating yearly tourism revenue of 64 billion yuan ($10 billion) by 2025. Source : Xinhua
July 2021
Photo : Tourists take pictures of a livestreaming host at Yardrok Yutso Lake in Tibet Photo by Li Yin/for China Daily）
