Promotional activities

In addition to easing permit application procedures for overseas visitors, regional authorities have been conducting promotional activities overseas and in cities across China.

Last year, Tibet received 33.68 million visits from domestic tourists, a year-on-year rise of 1.5 percent, along with more than 270,000 visits from overseas travelers.

According to the tourism department's supervision and administration office, the region received more than 13 million visitors in the first half of this year, a rise of 20 percent from the same period last year. Those visits generated revenue of 14.93 billion yuan ($2.17 billion), a rise of 19.8 percent.

Of those, 118,600 visits were made by foreign tourists, a rise of 53.5 percent, while tourism revenue generated by overseas visitors reached more than $78 million, an increase of 44.2 percent from the same period last year.

The overseas tourists came mainly from Europe, the United States and Southeast Asian countries, according to Yuan.

"The policy of free admission to some top tourist sites, 50 percent discounts on hotel rooms, and cheaper flights (both domestically and internationally) made the region a hot destination for tourists during the winter, and for the first time, the region received more than 800 overseas tourists in March," he added.

Winter was a very quiet season before the region launched the "Travel to Tibet in Winter" campaign last year. However, thanks to the campaign, the region received 1.17 million domestic and overseas tourists from Nov 1 to March 15, a rise of 28.1 percent from the same period a year before.

According to the tourism development department, in addition to the campaign, other measures included promotional efforts in other provinces and issuing invitations to businesses to help rural residents benefit from tourism.

"To promote the sector in other provinces, the department has placed posters and videos related to Tibetan culture and tourism in key airports and transportation hubs," Yuan said.

The department also used its two websites, social media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo and the short-video app TikTok, aka Douyin in China, and the Tibet tourism magazine to provide more information about the region's rich tourism resources.

The department has also focused on maintaining a healthy tourist market and protecting the environment as a way of improving the quality of services offered in the region, Yuan said.

He noted that the regional government has always put environmental conservation ahead of the development of tourism. He stressed that visitors bring cash, but a healthy environment is far more important because clean water and green mountains will attract more tourists.

Meanwhile, a rising number of rural residents are benefiting from the growth of the sector, thanks to several local initiatives.