LHASA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet has seen dramatic growth in tourism revenue in the first five months this year.

From January to May, Tibet welcomed 5.6 million tourists, up 38 percent from a year ago. Total revenue also rose 41.4 percent to 7.1 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars), according to the regional Tourism Development Commission Sunday.

Tourism had been slack in winter in Tibet due to bad weather. In January this year, the regional government came up with discounts, charter flights and train services to attract more domestic and overseas tourists.

The market in May grew rapidly, with the number of tourists hitting 2.9 million, up 20.7 percent year on year.

The local government will continue some of the winter incentives until June.