Tibet is among the few pure, clean lands left untouched in the whole world, and a place people dream of. Tibet should therefore make good use of its own advantages, and the opportunity of the country’s western development campaign, to promote its tourism industry.

                     

Of course, Tibet is a kingdom of ancient highland plants. But for travelers, adventures and dreamers, Tibet is a land steeped in magic and mystery. As Tibetans woke to the sound of travelers prying at the closed doors, they slipped the lock and threw away the keys.

In today’s information age, only a few areas still maintain their mystery. Tibet is one of them. Because of its remote location and difficulty of access, it has only recently been exposed to the outside world, and still keeps its primitive natural scenery and folk customs. These attract many tourists, from all over the world.
 

 

Taking advantage of its great natural beauty and ancient monasteries, the local government of the Tibet Autonomous Region put tourism as one of its pillar industries. Zha Nuo, vice director of the local Tourism Bureau, said that tourism in Tibet is now flourishing, but the development speed should be appropriate, and the local features should be maintained.

“After the reform and opening up, we adjusted our industrial structure, attaching more importance to tourism. We believe that maintaining our own unique features is indispensable for the development of Tibetan tourism. Meanwhile, we will also provide a compatible environment for it.”

 

 

Tibet started to develop its own tourism industry only some 20 years ago. This was fairly late. And unlike some other tourist spots in China, Tibet had its first tourists come mostly from overseas, greatly outnumbering domestic travelers. But in recent years, with the booming of the country’s economy, the number of Chinese tourists has increased dramatically. During the first half of this year, Tibet received over 230 thousand tourists, the highest number ever.
 

But Zha Nuo says that sometimes the tourist facilities in Tibet cannot meet the demand, especially in summer, the peak season, when cities like Lhasa, Rekeze and Shannan often run out of hotel rooms.

Noting the importance of tourism to its local economy, the Autonomous Region’s government has taken many measures to develop it.

Namucuo is the highest lake in the world, and one of the three sacred lakes in Tibet. Though the road to Namucuo is very rugged, many tourists would like to go there, out of admiration and curiosity. So the central government invested 20 million yuan, or nearly 2.5 million U.S.dollars, to build a new road.
 

Basongcuo, located in the Linzhi area, is also one of the three sacred lakes, but it was also very difficult to get to. The local government has already invested 8 million yuan to improve the transportation and service facilities around there. Now some tourist villages have been built on the lakeshore, and pleasure-boats are provided for the travelers. But there is still a distance of 50 kilometers or so that is not yet paved, which greatly affects tourism. It is said that in the near future, another 120 million yuan RMB will be allocated to this area.
 

These two projects were both carried out by the Tibetan Tourism Development Corporation. Ge Sang, the chief manager of the corporation, said that the "develop the west" campaign provides a good opportunity for the tourism industry in Tibet, and as a tourist enterprise, they will introduce some elite tourism programs in the near future. Ge Sang also said:

“Tibet is among the few pure, clean lands left untouched in the whole world, and a place people dream of. Tibet should therefore make good use of its own advantages, and the opportunity of the country’s western development campaign, to promote its tourism industry.”

 

But, like other industries in Tibet, the development of tourism is also constrained by the poor transportation. Lie Que, the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, claimed that something will be done soon to solve this “bottleneck” problem, and promote its local economy.

“I think Tibetan Tourism is quite promising, but its development is confined by the poor transportation. To contact the outside world and to develop the local economy, we must solve this problem first.”

Environmental protection is another major issue in the process of tourism development. Zha Nuo said that tourism in Tibet needs to develop, and at the same time the environment needs great care.


 

“Tibet is situated on the roof of the world. If the environment here is exposed to human destruction, people’s life will definitely suffer from the side effects. The Qinghai-Tibet plateau is the origin of China’s two mother rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze - this is the pride and advantage of Tibet; but it also gives Tibet the responsibility of protecting and preserving its special natural scenery and cultural heritage. So we cannot develop tourism at the cost of the environment.”

The importance of tourism in Tibet’s economy, and the crucial importance of not destroying the environment in the process of its development, is increasingly recognized. The people understand that “killing the chicken to get the egg” is not the way to go.