Tourists from China's Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions can enter Tibet starting from May 1, but no date has been set for when foreigners will be allowed to return, Tibetan tourism authorities said at a meeting on Tuesday, Nanfang Daily reported today.

The autonomous region's capital Lhasa was hit by a series of riots starting on March 14.

Domestic tourists to Tibet will be required to show their identification cards when booking train tickets to the region after travel into Tibet resumed on Wednesday, the newspaper said.

For tourist groups, they need to show only photocopies of their ID cards, the report said.

The authority said the move will curb scalper activity and help attract travelers back to the region, the report said.

Lhasa's tourism industry has slowly been returning to normal. The city greeted its first domestic tour group on April 24 in a sign that safety concerns have been somewhat allayed, the report said.

The 15-member tour group from Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, arrived in Lhasa about 9:50pm.

The tourism industry accounts for close to 70 percent of Lhasa's GDP.

The 33.09 billion yuan (US$4.73 billion) Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which was completed in June 2006 and put into operation on July 1 that year, connected Tibet with the outside world by rail for the first time. Its tracks are laid in permafrost and an oxygen system helps passengers overcome high-altitude sickness.

Lhasa received more than 2.7 million visitors last year and aims to increase the number by 30 percent to 3.3 million this year, the report said.

During the three-day riot, at least 18 civilians and one police officer were confirmed killed, which also resulted in 382 injuries. Damage caused by smashing, burning and ransacking was estimated at more than 244 million yuan, according to previous reports.

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2008)