Quake-hit China province to re-open tourist services

SHANGHAI, June 14 (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 giant pandas and suffered serious damage in last month's earthquake.

The southwestern province's tourism sector lost more than 50 billion yuan due to the earthquake which struck last month, Zhang Gu, head of Sichuan's provincial tourism bureau, was reported by CCTV as saying.

Tourist facilities in six cities and 30 counties, which together made up 15 percent of the entire province's tourism revenue last year, were directly affected by the earthquake, CCTV said.

Other areas, including the panda habitat, were only partially 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 was completely destroyed by the earthquake, the official Xinhua new agency said on Friday.

(Reporting by Sophie Taylor; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)