Zambia attracted more foreign tourists and realized more revenues in 2006 partly due to its tourism promotion campaign, a tourism official has said.

 

Zambia recorded 670,000 foreign tourist arrivals in the year 2006 which raked in 176 million U.S. dollars, Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Kabinga Pande was cited by Tuesday's Times of Zambia as saying.

 

This was compared to the 2005 tourist arrivals of about 650,000 which realized tourism revenues of 164 million dollars.

 

Pande said the increase in the inflow of tourists was attributed to good policies, peace and tranquility the country had enjoyed since its independence.

 

He also cited the "Visit Zambia 2005" campaign as one of the major factors that contributed to the good performance of the tourism industry last year.

 

Pande said his ministry would open up more marketing offices in various European countries this year to attract tourists to Zambia.

 

He said the ministry's target this year was to attract more than 1 million foreign tourists and also increase the number of local tourists.

 

The Zambian government has in recent years placed the tourism sector at the center of the country's economic development together with its mining and agricultural industries.

 

The performance of the tourism sector has in the past five years greatly improved thereby contributing to the growth of the national economy, said the newspaper.  

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2007)