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Tibet, a tourist mecca, closed to foreigners: tour operators
Paris (AFP) March 15, 2008 Tibet shut the door to foreign tourists Saturday following China's deadly crackdown on protesters opposed to Beijing's half-century rule of the mountainous region, a booming tourism mecca last year. Tour and hotel operators in China contacted by AFP said foreign visitors have left Tibet or have been barred from entering, while Chinese tanks and soldiers patrol the capital Lhasa after quashing protests that left 10 to possibly 100 people dead, according to various sources. "There are tanks and armed soldiers on the streets. We have been told to stay in our rooms... the city is shut down," Wu Yongzhe, a tour organiser, said by phone. "We do not have any more foreign clients," said an employee of a Lhasa hotel. Similar reports came from by some tour operators in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu, the usual point of departure for flights to Tibet. "I can no longer arrange trips" to Tibet, said a hotel executive in Chengdu. Travel agent Wu explained that foreigners could not travel to Lhasa because "the permits are no longer being granted." Tibet has been a draw for foreign tourists for its spectacular mountains including Mount Everest and for being the home of Tibetan Buddhism and its exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Some 365,000 foreigners visited the region last year, an increase of 136 percent compared with 2006, bringing in more than 135 million dollars, according to the regional government's tourism office. The biggest group of visitors to Tibet are actually Chinese from other regions of the country, with about four million visiting in 2007. Among foreigners, the largest number come from Japan and the United States. However, the United States and other countries have issued travel warnings about Tibet, with the US embassy in Beijing describing the situation there as "unstable". Several European countries including Sweden, Italy and France advised their citizens traveling in China to keep away from demonstrations and stay out of Lhasa until things return to normal. "We simply could not see all that we wanted to see," said a German tourist Saturday of his visit to Tibet. A Canadian visitor added that a number of the Buddhist monasteries have been closed since Tuesday. Still, a French tourism operator specialising in the region, Jean-Paul Chantraine, said he was "not pessimistic" about the future of trips to Tibet, claiming it was too early to say if the region's tourist boom would go bust. Besides, the tourist season in the Tibetan mountains does not really take off until April and May, other travel executives said. "There is still a lot of snow in the mountains" in March, said Rene-Marc Chikli, president of the French tour operators association Ceto. With China set to host the Summer Olympics in August, Tibet has taken on greater importance as Tibetan rights groups have vowed to pile pressure on Beijing over its rule ahead of the Games. Any perceived rights abuses would prove unwelcome news for the Chinese leadership in the run-up to the Olympics. The Tibetan protests are the biggest since 1989, when Chinese President Hu Jintao -- who on Saturday was given a second five-year term -- was the Communist Party chief of Tibet. The unrest in Lhasa began on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising that led the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India. The state-run Xinhua news agency said 10 people died in Friday's protests, while the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamshala in northern India told AFP it could confirm three times that number and possibly many more. "We are confirming approximately 30 deaths, and we are even hearing numbers of over 100 dead, but this number we are unable to confirm," Tenzin Taklha, a senior official of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamshala in northern India, told AFP. Tibet, about twice the size of France, has been a flashpoint for China's Communist leadership since it came to power in 1949. Communist forces were sent into Tibet in 1950 to "liberate" the region, with China's official rule beginning a year later. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links China News from SinoDaily.com
World condemns China as Olympic doubts grow
Paris (AFP) March 15, 2008Taiwan led sweeping condemnation Saturday of China's brutal crackdown on protestors in Tibet and accused Beijing of trying to gloss over its rights record with Olympic sheen. |
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