Tibet plans to issue one million tourism cards nationwide to provide quality services in sightseeing, catering, accommodation, transportation and shopping and build a safe payment platform for tourists.
Namtso Lake, 240 km north of Lhasa, capital city of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, is the highest salt lake in the world. The lake covers an area of 1,940 sq m and is located at an altitude of more than 4,700 m.[Photo: Lhasa Evening News] |
Xin Jianhua, deputy general manager of the China UnionPay Tibet Branch, said that the cards will fall into two types, namely, the debit card and the credit card.
The cardholders will not only enjoy quality services in Tibet's 500 designated hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and ticketing centers, but also receive discounts, gifts or bonus points for consumption.
Xin added that presuming that one million cardholders come to Tibet once with the per-capita consumption hitting 3,000 yuan RMB (439 U.S. dollars), Tibet will earn three billion yuan RMB (439 million dollars) from its tourism industry.
Tibet issued 1.5 million bank cards in the first ten months of this year. Now, Tibet has 326 ATMs, 2,013 POSs, and 1,677 designated shops, and the inter-bank transaction volume via ATMs and POSs has reached two billion yuan RMB (293 million dollars.)