Tibet to restore peak season tourist prices

Latest: Tibet to restore peak season tourist prices

Festival: Yellow peony festival inNyingchi

New air route: Chengdu-Kangding air
route

Discount: Tibetans to enjoy discountin
Nyingchi


Tourist: Comfortable to travel in
Tibet

LHASA, April 22
(Xinhua) -- Tibet today began to return to high season prices at tourism venues
after a half-year discount, the Tibetan tourism authority said Wednesday.

More than 430,000 tourists visited Tibet Autonomous
Region since October 20 last year, when the region's tourism administration
launched a price-cut campaign to lure travelers during the slack winter season.

Tourists line for visiting the Potala
Palace in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 21,
2009. (Xinhua/Purbu Zhaxi)
Photo Gallery

Tourist arrivals, including 406,000 domestic and
24,000 from abroad, increased by 12 percent in the past six months as against
the previous corresponding period.

The administration mobilized travel agencies, key
scenic spots, hotels and ground transportation authorities to cut prices by
half.

During the promotion period, the price of a four-day
and five-night package tour from China's coastal province of Guangzhou dropped
to 2,499 yuan (366 U.S. dollars) per person, covering two-way flight tickets,
food and lodging, and tickets for tourist resorts in Tibet.

The price cut, the largest ever in Tibet, has helped
the region to regain visitors after the March riot last year badly hurt tourism,
the main industry fueling the region's economy.

Tourists line for visiting the Potala
Palace in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 21,
2009.(Xinhua/Purbu Zhaxi)
Photo Gallery

The Nyingchi region received 24,000 sightseers in
November, up 4.8 percent as against the same period of 2007, *** it the first
in Tibet to recover from the sluggish tourist market.

Tourism authority statistics show that tourist
arrivals in Tibet hit nearly 2.25 million in 2008, generating revenue of
2.259billion yuan, down 44.4 percent and 53.4 percent respectively from those of
2007.

As the busy season is coming, main tourist
attractions in Tibet will gradually return to the normal ticket prices,
according to Wang Songping, vice director with the tourism administration.

Jokhang Temple restored the 80-yuan price from 35
yuan Wednesday, but the Potala Palace still maintained the off-season price of
100 yuan, only half of the normal price.

Tourists line for visiting the Potala
Palace in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 21,
2009. Tibet received 140,000 domestic and foreign tourists in the first
quarter of this year, a 6.9 percent increase year on year, according to
the Tourism Administration of Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Purbu
Zhaxi)
Photo
Gallery

In a bid to protect one of the city's iconic images,
the government of Lhasa has set a height limit of 15 meters to constructions
within a radius of 2 kilometers of the Potala Palace, to ensure that the view of
the famous tourist attraction would not be blocked, according to a new layout of
Lhasa, capital of Tibet.

Those buildings higher than the new standard will
either be dismantled or cut short, according to the plan governing city
construction for 2009 to 2020. The layout was ratified by the State Council last
month.

Tibet receives seven percent more
tourists in Q1

BEIJING, April 22 (Xin***) -- Tibet received 140,000
domestic and foreign tourists in the first quarter of this year, a 6.9 percent
increase year on year, according to the Tourism Administration of Tibet
Autonomous Region.

The total revenue of Tibet's tourism industry reached
128.63 million yuan during that period, up five percent from the same period
last year. Full story

Foreigners make up ten percent of
visitors to Tibet


BEIJING, April 20
(Xin***) -- One out of ten visitors to Tibet is from a foreign country after
the region reopened to foreign tourists or tourists from China's Hong Kong,
Macao and Taiwan in early April.

Foreign tourists may get into
the southwest China's region as of April 5 after it lifted a month-long
suspension.

Tibet's tourism reviving with warmer
climate

BEIJING, April 15
(Xin***) -- Tibet's tourism has been reviving with the increasingly warmer
climate, according to the Tibet Regional Tourism Bureau
Wednesday.

Statistics show that since mid-April,
Tibet has received 100 foreign tourist groups of about 900 people each day, with
a daily growth rate of 20 percent, and 200 domestic tour groups of 1,000 people
each day, with a daily growth rate of 20 percent.

Tibet to receive 3 mln domestic, foreign tourists in
2009

LHASA, April 11 (Xinhua) --
Tibet expects to receive three million domestic and foreign tourists in 2009,
said an official with the regional tourism administration here on Saturday.

Tibet received 230 tourists from Macao and Zhuhai City in
south China's Guangdong Province on late Saturday. The tour is the biggest ever
since the first operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. They will have a
nine-day-tour in Tibet, visiting many scenic spots including the Potala Palace
and Jokhang Temple.