Photo taken on Aug. 15, 2015 shows two giraffes at the Masai Mara National Reserve of Kenya. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)

NAIROBI, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to target Chinese tourists in order to boost the resilience of the tourism sector, officials have said.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) chairman Jimi Kariuki told Xinhua in Nairobi Monday that for Kenya, China is one of that nations that have posted double digit growth of tourists in the past three years.

"We are therefore going to enhance our marketing activities in China, in order to cushion the tourism sector from fluctuations in tourist arrivals from our traditional source markets in the west," Kariuki said on the sidelines of a tourism stakeholders forum.

He noted that China is one of the key markets that Kenya will continue to focus in future.

Government data indicates out of the 874,385 international visitors in Kenya in 2016, about 69,000 were Chinese nationals. The number of Chinese tourists increased by 35 percent in 2016.

"According to our projections, we also expect to experience a 35 percent increase or more of Chinese tourists in 2017," Kariuki said.

He said that Kenya and other African countries are still not familiar to Chinese tourists and most Chinese prefer to visit cities in Europe and North America.

"However, over time we are seeing increased interest in the African continent primarily due to its abundant wildlife resources," he added.

KTB said that most Chinese visitors come to Kenya to visit the world famous Masai Mara National Reserve that is home to the annual wildebeest migration.

The tourism agency noted that the presence of direct flights between the Kenya and China has also helped to increase the number of Chinese tourists coming to the east African country.