Xinhua brought out a rather surprising news report this week: the Qinghai province received a record 23 million tourists in 2015, up 15.5 percent compared to the previous year (most of them visited tourist spot on the plateau).
According to the provincial tourism bureau in Lhasa, the influx of tourists has generated a revenue worth 25 billion yuan (3.8 billion U.S. dollars), up 22.8 percent from 2014.
The Chinese News Agency explained that: “The province held a number of festivals targeting winter tourists in 2015 and marketed new travel packages.”
Zhang Yan, a deputy director in Tibet’s Tourism Bureau added: “Spring and winter tourism in Qinghai grew over 20 percent every year during the last five years, with tourism revenue up 30 percent on average every year.”
Xinhua asserted that China’s northwestern province has witnessed a rapid tourism growth, the number of tourists increased from less than 4 million a decade ago to 23 million in 2015.[Source]
