Xizang sees greater tourist influx during holiday

Tourist attractions in the Xizang autonomous region embraced more than 2.38 million visits during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 16.56 percent year-on-year, according to the region's culture and tourism department.

It said that tourism-related expenditure during the holiday reached 1.94 billion yuan ($266.36 million), up 13.68 percent year-on-year.

Spring Festival, the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, fell on Jan 29 this year and marked the beginning of the Year of the Snake. Spring Festival was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in December.

As Xizang became one of four sub-venues for this year's Chunwan, or Spring Festival gala in China, the region's tourism boom continues to heat up during the holidays and the search popularity for Lhasa, capital of the region, at one point saw a month-on-month growth of over 100 percent, Xizang Daily reported.

As one of the region's most famous tourist attractions, Potala Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site, received more than 29,500 visitors during the holiday, a 69 percent increase compared to the previous year, said the department.

According to the latest statistics from Ctrip, a Chinese online travel agency, the main source cities for tourists visiting Xizang during the Spring Festival holiday are Shanghai, Chengdu, Beijing and Guangzhou.

The most popular local attractions of Xizang include Nam Co Lake, Potala Palace and Draksum Tso Lake, it showed.

Meanwhile, the region hosted various business promotion activities during the holiday, including New Year-themed shopping fairs, intangible cultural heritage exhibitions and various discounts on tourism activities. These activities also contributed to the tourism boom during the holidays.

In Lhasa's Gakyiling Plaza Shopping Mall, an imported products fair was held between Jan 23 and Tuesday, bringing more than 60 foreign merchants from countries including Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing locals the chance to purchase imported goods and meet their New Year shopping needs.

Mohammad Jan Aminzai, a merchant from Afghanistan who sold Afghan carpets and rugs at the fair, said he was proud and pleased to be invited as a merchant in the imported goods fair, and he brought various handmade carpets and rugs produced from his country.

"Local residents of Xizang like my products very much and every time I come to the fair, my business is very good," said Aminzai.

The booming tourism market has also driven the development of related industries in Xizang, such as hotels, restaurants and homestays.

Many hotels in Lhasa did exceptionally well during the holiday, and local residents increased their income by participating in tourism services.

"In the past, winter was the offseason for tourism and business was relatively slow. However, Spring Festival is an exception and we received more tourists. My guesthouse has been almost full all the time," said a guesthouse owner surnamed Qin.

In addition, thanks to efforts made by the regional cultural and tourism department in attracting more tourists to tour the region during the winter, more people have indeed visited the area as they can benefit from various discounts on tickets, hotels and transportation.

According to the latest round of winter travel discounts launched by the government, excluding some key monasteries and temples, all scenic spots, including Potala Palace in Lhasa, offer free entry in the winter, and off-season winter prices are available on star-rated hotels and flights.