LHASA — About 36.89 million domestic and overseas tourists visited Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region in the first three quarters of this year, up 15.2 percent year-on-year, according to local authorities.

The region's tourism revenue from January to September rose 26.6 percent from a year earlier to 42.4 billion yuan (about $6.6 billion), the regional tourism department said in a statement.

The growth in the number of tourists and tourism revenue was partly due to effective epidemic control and rapidly developing infrastructure in Tibet.

A raft of preferential policies has been implemented to promote the region's tourism growth, including lower hotel prices and free tickets at many tourist attractions, between mid-October and the end of the year.

The incentives are expected to help Tibet meet the goals of receiving 42 million tourists and generating annual tourism revenue of 44 billion yuan in 2021.