Tourists to Tibet soon to reach 10 million

The Tibet autonomous region is expected to receive a record 10-million-plus tourists this year, a local tourism official said on Monday.

These visitors will bring revenue of 12 billion yuan ($1.89 billion), equal to 17 percent of the region's GDP, said Yu Yungui, head of the region's tourism bureau.

Yu said more than 7 million domestic and foreign tourists visited Tibet from January to August, a year-on-year increase of more than 25 percent. Tourism revenue in the past eight months jumped 30 percent year-on-year to 7.5 billion yuan.