URUMQI – The number of domestic tourists to China’s far western Xinjiang region slumped 26.6 percent year on year to 1.3 million during the National Day holiday, local authorities said Saturday.
The tourism slump came despite government measures to attract visitors after the deadly July 5 Urumqi riot and a wave of needle attacks from mid August to early September.
The tourism revenue plunged more than 30 percent annually to 652 million yuan (95.5 million U.S. dollars), the Xinjiang regional statistics bureau said, citing estimated results on samples from five major tourism cities.
The road transport system in Xinjiang carried 3.23 million passengers during the eight-day holiday, down 4.3 percent from a year earlier.
The railways transported 380,000 passengers and those in Urumqi, the capital, carried 171,000 passengers, down 1.7 percent from a year earlier.