Tibet will reopen to foreign tourist groups on May 1 following a six-week closure due to deadly riots in the capital, Lhasa, the regional tourism authority said Thursday.

Tour operators, hotels and restaurant owners have complained of major losses due to the closure of the region's borders as part of a massive security clampdown.

Hundreds of shops, trinket stalls and other businesses catering to tourists were also damaged in the anti-government violence on March 14 that followed days of peaceful protests by Buddhist monks.

Officials say about 80 percent of the damaged businesses have since reopened, though travelers are few.

Tourism accounts for a major portion of the economy of Lhasa, which boasts famous monuments such as the Potala and Norbulinka, the former residences of the Dalai Lama.

While those have reopened, many of the city's ancient temples and monasteries remain closed, ringed by troops while officers interrogate monks inside. Officials did not say whether they would reopen by May 1.

"The tourism industry is Lhasa's sunrise industry, as well as one of its most fragile," the vice director of the regional tourism bureau, Sun Yongpin, was quoted as saying in the newspaper Tibet Commerce.

Tourism directly or indirectly employs about 140,000 of Tibet's roughly 3 million people, Sun said. Lhasa saw 2.7 million tourist arrivals from home and abroad last year, and this year expects that figure to rise by 30 percent to 3.3 million.

Tour operators are considering deep discounts on packages to draw visitors back, while the government is mulling tax breaks and other forms of fiscal relief for the beleaguered industry.