Tibet hosts record number of holiday tourists

LHASA - Tibet saw a record influx of 740,000 tourists during the National Day holiday, said the regional tourism bureau on Wednesday.

From Oct.1 to 7, the region hosted 296,000 overnight tourists and 449,000 one-day travellers. The total number of tourists grew 12.8 percent compared with the same period last year. Tourism revenue hit 337 million yuan ($54.8 million) in the past week.

On Oct. 3, 124,000 tourist arrived, the most for any single day.

With its rich and relatively untapped tourist resources, the southwestern region received 12.9 million domestic and overseas tourists last year, up 22 percent from the previous year. Tourism brought it 16.5 billion yuan of revenue in 2013, or more than one-fifth of the local economy.