Tibet to reopen for foreign tourists soon

New Delhi, Jun 21: Executive vice chairman of Tibet Palma Trily has said that Tibet will reopened for foreign tourists soon. However, he could not specify the date, but told reporters that the step would not be taken immediately after Saturday's Olympic torch relay.

Travel agencies in Tibet have stopped entertaining tourists after the riots amid safety concerns. The tourism market reopened to domestic tourists in late April and for tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan on May 1. Many hotels, restaurants and tourist resorts suffered losses in the riot and needed time to recover, Palma Trily said. He hoped that normalcy in the functioning of tourism market in Tibet would not take long. Since April 24, Tibet has received 120,000 domestic tourists in more than 100 groups, Xinhua reported. A delegation of 50 journalists left Beijing for Lhasa on Friday to cover the Olympic torch relay. China cordially welcomed journalists from around the world to cover the Beijing Olympic Games and the torch relay activities, information Office of the State Council said.

The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Games of the 29th Olympiad (BOCOG) announced that the torch relay schedule in Tibet was reduced to one day on June 21 from the original three days of June 19 to 21.

ANI