SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's earthquake-hit Sichuan province will reopen some tourist services to the public from June 15, in a bid to revive its tourism industry, official media said on Saturday.
Sichuan province is home to most of the world's giantpandas and suffered serious damage in last month's earthquake.
The southwestern province's tourism sector lost more than50 billion yuan due to the earthquake which struck last month,Zhang Gu, head of Sichuan's provincial tourism bureau, wasreported by CCTV as saying.
Tourist facilities in six cities and 30 counties, whichtogether made up 15 percent of the entire province's tourismrevenue last year, were directly affected by the earthquake,CCTV said.
Other areas, including the panda habitat, were onlypartially damaged, Zhang was reported as saying.
Tourism services in Sichuan will resume in three phases,with a full recovery expected around 2010, Zhang said.
At least eight percent of the endangered bear's habitat wascompletely destroyed by the earthquake, the official Xinhua newagency said on Friday.
(Reporting by Sophie Taylor; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
