Tibet sees over 1,000 int’l tourists

Lhasa – The number of tourists have been increasing for Southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region, with more than 1,000 tourists visiting the region every day, the Tibet Tourism Bureau said .

International tourists from 40 countries, including the United States, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Japan and Nepal, visited Tibet this week.The number of tourists from the United States is the largest group among the tourists followed by Germans, Malaysians and Singaporeans.Art stores on Barkhor Street said an increasing number of foreign tourists have visited their stores in recent days to buy artwork.

The Bureau said Tibet received 1.45 million tourists in the first five months of the year, showing an increase of 25.7 percent year on year.Of the total number of tourists, 1.42 million were domestic tourists, the regional tourism bureau said in a statement.

The plateau region earned 1.36 billion yuan ($215.87 million) in domestic tourism revenues during the five-month period, the bureau said.The bureau said Tibet expects 10 million tourist arrivals and 12 billion yuan in tourism revenues this year.

According to the tourism bureau, nearly 8.427 million domestic tourists and 270,800 international tourists visited Tibet in 2011.

Meanwhile, air traffic is about to get busier in Southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region because the Civil Aviation Administration of China and regional government agreed to encourage airlines to offer more flights to the region.

The CAAC and regional government are planning to establish more routes linking Lhasa, the regional capital, with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as several southeast and west Asian countries.

Li Jun, deputy director of the CAAC, said applications for new air routes to Tibet from other countries will be encouraged to aid the growth of Tibet’s air passenger volume.Currently, 32 routes operated by six airlines link with Tibet, but the only international destination among them is Katmandu in Nepal.

Li Haiying, general manager of Sichuan Airlines, said the company hopes to open new routes linking Lhasa with Nepal, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Tibet was once regarded as a difficult area to fly in because of its complicated geographic conditions and unpredictable weather.

However, air transportation in Tibet has maintained double-digit growth over the past five years.Figures from the CAAC’s Tibet bureau indicate that more than 672,000 passengers traveled in or out of the region by air in the first five months of the year, a 25-percent year-on-year increase.

Tibet’s government chief Padma Choling said On Thursday that Tibet is striving to build itself into an international tourist destination with a goal of drawing 15 million visitors annually by 2015.”The target has created much higher demands for Tibet’s air transportation development,” he said.

Local authorities also agreed on Thursday on a set of airport expansion and upgrading projects in Tibet.The regional government has stepped up efforts to upgrade its infrastructure and optimize its transportation network to cater to the rising demand generated by tourism.

Construction of two new airports in Tibet’s remote Nagqu and Nyingchi areas is under way. Meanwhile, two railways currently under construction will link Lhasa with the city of Xigaze and Nyingchi county,reports Xinhua.