19. Dec 2009
China reports record 2009 tourism in TAR
(TibetanReview.net; Xinhua) Xinhua reports that 5.56 million Chinese and other foreign tourists will have visited Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) by the end of 2009, a 147 percent rise over the 2008 figure. The statistics released at a 'Tibet Economic Work Conference' suggest that income from tourism, at 5.2 billion Yuan (UK£470m; US $760m; EUR£530m), increased by 132 percent. 

TAR Party Secretary, Zhang Qingli said more than one million tourists had visited the region in both July and August 2009.

 Tourism figures had plummeted in 2008 due to the lockdown imposed by Beijing after the demonstrations across the Tibetan Plateau that began in March-April. This was followed by the 12 May catastrophic earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province and the 6.6 magnitude earthquake in Damshung (Chin: Dangxiong) county, Lhasa, in October 2008.