Beijing, December 14 – Despite a sharp fall in the number of foreign tourists to Tibet, dubbed “the roof of the world,” the remote Himalayan region hosted 915,945 visitors in the first 11 months of this year, up 8.3 per cent over the same period last year.
Information from the regional statistics bureau said that Tibet earned a record 1.01 billion yuan (about 122.55 million US dollars) from tourism from January to November, up 6.5 per cent.
Foreign tourists made up 49,845, down by 61.6 per cent, while domestic tourists totalled 866,100, a rise of 21 per cent.
The rise of tourism service revenue was attributed to the increasing number of domestic tourists to this plateau region and the fact that domestic tourists stayed longer and spent more money during their stay in Tibet, Xinhua news agency reported.
A sample survey shows that the domestic tourists spent 542.5 yuan (one US dollar equals 8.3 Chinese yuan) per person each day this year, 96.5 yuan more than the comparable figure for 2002.
Meanwhile, maintenance projects for the Potala Palace, the Norpu Lingka Palace and the Sakya monastery, three major historical sites in the Tibet autonomous region, have cost 333.3 million yuan (about 40.16 million US dollars).
