Beijing  - Tourism revenue fell by nearly 40 per cent in China's Tibet region over the week-long National Day holiday because of rioting and unrest in the region earlier this year, state media said on Monday.

The number of tourist arrivals fell by 36 per cent year-on-year to 257,000 during the one-week holiday, which ended on Sunday, the government's Xinhua news agency quoted a regional tourism official as saying.

Only 110,900 tourists stayed overnight in the region, down 41.5 per cent from last year, the agency said.

The tourism revenue for the National Day holiday reached 81.49 million yuan (11.88 million dollars), 38.9 per cent lower than last year, it quoted Zhanor, the deputy head of the regional tourism bureau, as saying.

Zhanor said the sharp drop followed unrest among Tibetans, which has continued since rioting in the regional capital Lhasa in March.

"Comparing this year's Golden Week holiday with that of last year, there were notable decreases in terms of tourist arrivals and relevant earnings as a result of the March 14 Lhasa unrest," he was quoted as saying.

"But tourist confidence in travelling in Tibet is returning according to the situation in the previous months and the region's tourism is recovering," Zhanor said.

China reopened the Tibet Autonomous Region to tourists from May 1, after suspending tours because of protests and rioting in Lhasa.

The region became a magnet for Chinese tourists after the opening of the first railway to Lhasa in 2006.

Pro-independence demonstrations and unrest began in Tibetan areas on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

The Chinese government said 19 people were killed in the violence in Lhasa but the Tibetan government-in-exile said about 140 people were killed, most of them Tibetans shot by Chinese police.

Protests erupted in dozens of other Tibetan areas of China, which is home to about 6 million Tibetans, including some 2.5 million in the Autonomous Region.

Last year the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual Buddhist leader of Tibet, said a new railway had allowed the start of a "second invasion of Tibet" by Chinese migrants.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the occupation of Tibet by Chinese troops since 1951. (dpa)