A total of 335,630 tourists visited Uganda in the first six months this year, an official has said.

James Bahinguza, general manager of the Uganda Tourism Board was quoted by New Vision on Tuesday as saying the country has seen a 20 percent increase from last year's figures.

"The number of tourists visiting is steadily increasing. We recorded a 20 percent increase which is greatly encouraging," said Bahinguza, while attributing the rise to successful advertising and marketing.

"We had 75,292 males and 30,455 females through Entebbe. Through border posts, there were 164,473 males and 65,116 females, " Bahinguza said.

He said most tourists are from Britain and some countries outside East Africa.

In 2005, a total of 467,728 tourists visited the country which is famous for Lake Victoria, the world's second largest freshwater lake, and other sightseeing sites.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2006)