After limiting the daily number of tourists allowed to enter the Potala Palace to 7,000 or so through much of the year due to the fragility of its ancient architecture, China has now opened it to the public free of charge from Nov 1 until Mar 15 of 2024 in order to promote winter tourism.

Iconic tourist destinations in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), such as Potala Palace, will be open to the public free of charge during this period, as a part of the region’s winter tourism promotion, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Nov 1.

The report cited the regional tourism development department as saying that during the winter promotion period, all scenic spots rated above A level in TAR will be open to the public free of charge, except for temple sites.

China has a tourist-rating classification system that rates tourist attractions from 1A to 5A based on their overall tourism quality, the report noted.

The report also said that during the winter months, hotels, restaurants, passenger transport services and airlines will offer off-season prices.

The local authorities were state to have planned to give incentives or subsidies to travel agencies, tourism and transport enterprises and airlines for serving travel routes in and out of TAR.

The region was stated to have received 49.67 million domestic and overseas visitors in the first three quarters of this year, up 67.4% year-on-year.

And the region’s tourism revenue was stated to have surged 46.2% from a year earlier to about 59.4 billion yuan (about $8.1 billion) during the period.