LHASA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of visitors to Tibet is expected to hit 5 million this year, up 25 percent from a year earlier, a local official has said.

    "In 2008, Tibet will make greater efforts to boost tourism-related infrastructure construction, rectify the market order and improve public services to lift the tourism industry to a new high," he said at the first session of the 9th Tibet Regional People's Congress.

    The plateau region in southwest China hosted a record high of more than 4 million tourists last year, an annual growth of 60.4 percent, statistics with the Tibet Regional Tourism Bureau show.

    Local authorities attributed the rapid tourism growth to overseas promotional drives, and the opening of Qinghai-Tibet railway and the third civilian airport in Nyingchi, which help to bring more tourists, from both home and abroad, to the plateau.

(resource : Chinaview)