A TOTAL of 84,069 visitors arrived in Zanzibar in January this year, a significant increase from 73,468 visitors in January 2024, indicating a 14.4 percent rise.

Fatma Hilal Mohammed, statistician with the Chief Government Statistician, Zanzibar office, unveiled this datum here yesterday when speaking to journalists on the Isles’ tourism trends.

Compared to 91,611 visitors who arrived in December 2024 there was a decrease of 8.2 percent, she said, noting that out of the January 2025 visitors, 62,125 (73.9 percent) arrived from Europe, 10,390 (12.4 percent) from African countries, 5,546 (6.6 percent) from the Americas, and 840 (1.0 percent) from Oceania.

Italy led in the number of visitors, sending 11,725 tourists (13.9 percent), followed by Poland with 8,150 visitors (9.7 percent), France being third with 7,983 visitors (9.5 percent), Germany with 5,401 visitors (6.4 percent) and the United States with 3,749 visitors (4.5 percent).

Most tourists, numbering 75,767 (90.1 percent) entered Zanzibar through airports, with 8,302 (9.9 percent) arriving via the ports, she said, elaborating further that 40,229 visitors (47.9 percent) were male and 43,840 (52.1 percent) were female. The quasi totality of the visitors, put at 99.5 percent, came for leisure, 0.4 percent to visit family and friends, and 0.1 percent for business or conferences, the statistician affirmed.

Shariff Bakari Shariff, the public relations head at the Department of Immigration, noted that visitors are now entering Zanzibar under changed regulations, where the shift is compulsory travel insurance.

Bakar Mussa Yussuf, IT manager at the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, noted that many visitors take out travel insurance, benefiting them in case of any travel-related complications.

Dr Estela Ngoma Hassan, an economist with the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), pointed at the need for tourism stakeholders to promote the sector further in African countries, China and other continents to attract more visitors.

Shamy Chamicha, an assistant manager at the Zanzibar office of the Bank of Tanzania, stated that the increase in visitors contributed to the rise in the circulation of foreign currency.

The country's tourism sector has a goal of attracting five million tourists by the end of this year and the government has also set a target of generating $6bn in revenue from tourism by the end of 2025 or in the vicinity of that period, she added.