Tanzania, May 20 -- Beijing. The minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, January Makamba, has urged Chinese tourists to explore Africa, highlighting its potential to benefit the continent's economies and strengthen people-to-people connections.

Speaking to journalists in Beijing at the weekend, Mr Makamba cited pre-Covid-19 pandemic data showing only about one million Chinese tourists visited Africa out of 180 million who travelled abroad in 2019.

"Imagine if even 10 percent of those tourists came to Africa-that's 18 million people!" he exclaimed. He added that half of Chinese tourists visited just four African countries.

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