The Xizang autonomous region received more than 2.38 million tourist visits during the recent Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 16.56 percent year-on-year, according to the region's culture and tourism department.

It said that tourism-related expenditures during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday, which ended on Tuesday, reached 1.94 billion yuan ($266 million), up 13.68 percent year-on-year.

Increased attention has turned toward Xizang following its inclusion as one of four sub-venues for this year's Spring Festival Gala. Online searches for Lhasa, the region's capital, saw a month-on-month growth of over 100 percent at the peak time, Xizang Daily reported.