EFFORTS to promote tourism in the central zone circuit are increasingly yielding results, with a notable increase in visitors at the Kondoa Irangi rock painting natural heritage site.

Zuberi Mabie, the site manager, said in an exclusive interview at the site yesterday, that the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kondoa District, Dodoma Region, attracted 6,228 tourists from July 2024 to June 2025.

This influx of visitors indicates a positive trend for the region's tourism sector, he said, noting that earlier the famous ancient cave paintings and rock shelter walls in central Tanzania used to receive 1,000 to 2,500 visitors annually.

This trend reflects the constructive strategy by the government for key investments at the endowed site, while promoting visitations to notable antiquities across the country, he said, noting that there was a rise in local visitations as well as international tourists.

In 2018 the area received 1, 287 domestic visitors, while in 2020 and 2021 local visitors had climbed to 2,142 and 3,335 respectively, then reaching 4,763 a  year later, followed by 6,229 visitations in 2023, while receiving 7,654 tourists at the site last year, he explained.

The number of international tourists stood at 664 in 2018, declining to 171 and 243 visitors in 2020 and 2021 respectively, climbing to 428 visitors from abroad a year later, attaining 671 visitors from outside in 2023 then experiencing a decline to 541 last year, he elaborated.

Applauding the series of efforts undertaken by the government to support visitation upgrading at the heritage site, he was expecting that as an area endowed with an impressive collection of rock art offering mesmerizing viewing will see more visitations, as among crowd puller destinations in the future.

The area was named a territorial monument in 1949 by the trusteeship authorities, where upon independence the Antiquities Department took over oversight functions in protecting the valuable heritage resources, he stated.

Several projects are in the pipeline to improve this area, especially in ensuring that roads are passable throughout the year, he said.

Kondoa Irangi rock painting site is a series of ancient paintings on rock shelter walls in central Tanzania, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006 given its impressive collection of rock art, he added.