Foreign tourists will be banned from Tibet this month, the region's top Communist Party leader has confirmed, saying it is for their safety.
'The winter chill and icy weather, tourists' safety, the insufficient accommodation and the crowds drawn by a string of festivities are reasons behind the restriction in March,' regional party secretary Zhang Qingli said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress in Beijing.
Zhang said the region would be crowded with Tibetans either celebrating their New Year or praying in numerous religious activities this month, aside from the huge throng of people who would visit for ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of Tibet's liberation in 1951.
'Altogether we have 1,000 hotels ... in which only 165 are entitled to receive foreign travellers,' Zhang said. 'Our capability to accept more tourists is limited, although there are a total of 80,000 beds in various hotels.
'The climate in Tibet is extremely cold. Snow covers almost every corner of the region. Above all, we don't want a single unpleasant incident anywhere in our jurisdiction and that's why we take the travellers' safety and health into consideration.'
A Southern Airlines employee said flights to Lhasa had been suspended because the hotels 'do not have the capacity to accommodate tourists' during the Buddhist festival this month.
A Beijing travel agent said yesterday that people from Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan, would not be allowed to enter Tibet unless they already had the required regional entry permit. He said he had no idea when the ban would be lifted.