ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia recorded $164 million in revenue from 43,695 Chinese tourists that visited the country in 2016, an Ethiopian official said on Monday.

The 2016 Chinese tourist figures had shown a steady increase from 2015 numbers which stood at 41,659.

Gezahegn Abate, Public and International Relations Director at Ethiopia Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT), said despite a steady increase in Chinese tourist numbers over the last several years, insufficient food and accommodation facilities are hampering even more growth.

Chinese are the third largest group of tourists to Ethiopia, only surpassed by US and British tourists, according to Abate.

"MoCT is encouraging Chinese investment in Ethiopia's hospitality sector with a view to dramatically increasing the number of Chinese tourists," Abate said.

With a view to making tourism a major hard currency earner, Ethiopia is implementing incentives for entrepreneurs involved in the tourism and hospitality industry, including duty free arrangements for construction materials.