Kenya's tourism promoters said Friday the number of tourists visiting the country will increase from last year's 1.4 million to 1.6 million this year.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Managing Director, Achieng Ong'ong'a, said diversification from the conventional safari and beach tourism and extensive marketing has led to an increase in the number of visitors compared to previous seasons.

He said quality services and high-spending visitors will be encouraged to enable the industry, which has made remarkable recovery from the impact of terrorism attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa in 1998 and 2002, to boom.

Ong'ong'a said the industry has been experiencing increased activity with earnings projected to rise from 42 billion shillings (about 583 million US dollars) last year to over 50 billion shillings (about 676 million dollars).

By June this year the sector had registered 700,000 visitors and currently hotels at the coast and airlines flying to Kenya have recorded heavy bookings ahead of the December festivities, Ong'ong'a said at a cultural function in coastal town of Kwale.

He, however, said there was need to improve the capacity and improve existing infrastructure to cope with the increasing numbers.

According to statistics the tourism sector accounts for about 13 percent of Kenya's gross domestic product and 15 percent of its foreign exchange earnings.

Last year, the east African nation enjoyed its best tourism performance in 15 years, earning 42 billion shillings, a 70 percent rise from the previous year.

Some 727,867 tourists visited the country in the this first half year, earning 23.3 billion shillings (about 315 million dollars), compared to 593,985 visitors and 19.7 billion shillings (about 266 million dollars) during the same period of 2004.

Source: Xinhua