In Tibet, historic websites are in danger due to a tourism growth | Tibet Information

Tourism is booming in Tibet.

More and more Chinese are traveling to the country because of the coronavirus pandemic, but this poses risks to the region’s fragile environment and historic sites.

“The biggest challenge for us is the contradiction between the protection and the use of the cultural relics,” said Gonggar Tashi, chief administrator of the Potala Palace.

In the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lamas, the number of visitors is limited to 5,000 daily.

Balancing the demand from the millions of visitors who come there each year with the need to minimize wear and tear on the massive hillside structure is an ongoing challenge, Tashi said.

In 2020, the number of tourists increased by 12.6 percent from the previous year, said Ge Lei, deputy director of the China Tourism Marketing Association.

He expects the number of visitors to roughly double by 2026.

The flood of visitors, which far exceeds Tibet’s population of 3.5 million, calls for caution to protect the environment and culture, he said.

One of the most popular natural sites in Tibet is Lake Namtso, which is surrounded by snow-capped peaks and Buddhist shrines, with yaks and migratory birds on the horizon.

The development of the website needs to be done carefully to avoid the damage that makes it attractive, Ge said.

“It will be difficult to protect the ecology and culture of Tibet … unless we have a long-term plan,” he said. “That is why it is very important to establish a number of values ​​and rules of conduct for traveling in Tibet when building the facilities.”

As the country’s focus shifted from international to domestic visitors, Tibetans have sometimes complained about Chinese tourists disregarding cultural traditions, including stepping on prayer flags, said Emily Yeh, a professor of geography at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The shift came as China’s middle class grew, Yeh added.