Tibet Autonomous Region in southwestern China hosted more than 928,600 tourists from home and overseas last year, a year-on-year rise of seven per cent, local tourism sources said on Wednesday.

The number of domestic tourists to the region surged 21 per cent to top 877,500 last year, while the number of overseas visitors was about 51,120, a drop of 64 per cent year on year.

Due to the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in some provinces and cities around China early last year, Tibet closed its door to overseas visitors in April and reopened to overseas tourists from last July.

To attract more overseas visitors, Tibet hosted a series of activities to promote local tourism in the second half of last year.

Currently, Tibet has over 100 tourist resorts, 233 travel agencies and 128 hotels for overseas visitors.

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