Tourism booming at World's Third Pole

New moves

To extend the tourism industrial chains to more sectors and attract more tourists from at home and abroad, the regional government has decided to establish an industrial development fund to channel more private investment into the sector and encourage more public-and-private capital cooperation.

A tourism resource trading platform will soon be set up so that tourism resources can be more efficiently mobilized through the market, said Qizhala.

Investment funds and venture capital guidance funds will also be established to boost innovation and entrepreneurship in the tourism-related industry, he said.

Road and railway construction will be sped up to improve the public services for tourists.

Yao Tandong, director of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Institute with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed at the expo the establishment of "Third Pole" national parks to make better use of tourism resources and better protect the environment.

The four candidate national parks are Serling Tso, Tibet's largest lake; Mount Qomolangma; the world's deepest canyon Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon; and Earth Forest, the ruins of the palace of the Gurge Kingdom dating back to the 9th century.

Once the Third Pole National Parks were established, unified planning could be made on the protection of these scenic areas to minimize the damage from tourism on ecology. The behavior of individual travelers will be better regulated while in-depth tours will be arranged to target high-end travelers.

Local residents who live nearby could also be better equipped to engage in tourism services. In 2017, some 125,000 farmers and herders benefited from the tourism industry, earning 12,000 yuan per person on average, by selling souvenirs, snacks, and other specialty products.