Uganda aims to attract four million tourists by 2020.

Tourism and Wildlife Minister, Ephraim Kamuntu, said he hoped to attract one million holidaymakers from China.

In 2015, international tourist arrivals to Uganda jumped 8% to 1.3 million compared with 1.2 million the previous year.

Of the 1.3 million, 70% were from key markets, including the UK, the US and Germany.

Kamuntu recently led a delegation of government and private-sector players to China, where they took part in the Guangdong International Tourism Expo. “We are going to embark on an aggressive marketing campaign in China. The government is looking at the Chinese outbound tourism market in a bid to uplift international arrivals to the country,” said the Minister.

He called on Chinese tour operators and travel agents to build links with Ugandan tourism players to develop itineraries that suit the Chinese market.

Uganda Tourism Board CEO, Stephen Asiimwe, commented: “We have a budget for market representation and public relations. We hope it will help bolster our presence in the Chinese market, increase visibility and awareness of the destination to grow visitor numbers.”

A representative of Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province, Liang Yongzhong, said China was ready to support Uganda’s campaigns to attract more Chinese tourists.

In a bid to drive international tourist numbers, the Uganda Tourism Board contracted three firms last year to market the country in its leading markets – the US, the UK and Germany.

Uganda has also received media publicity worth almost $4 million in the three key markets.

From the marketing and publicity campaigns, Uganda expects to receive 60,000 tourists from the US this year compared with 49,414 in 2015.

The country aims to receive 60,000 British tourists in 2017 compared with 40,851 in 2015 as well as increasing German tourists to 15,000 this year compared with 9,585 in 2015.