By Christian George
Most of the visitors to Zanzibar’s February festival were said to be French, beating Italy, Poland and Germany.
This was made known in a document which was released on Wednesday, March 22, in collaboration with Chief Government Statistician, the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism and the Immigration Department.
Zanzibar is said to have recorded 65,430 international visitors in February 2023.
According to The Citizen, the number shows that for the first time, February has recorded fewer visitors with a decrease of 4.9 per cent compared to the 68,813 visitors recorded in January 2023.
The report has it that 60,065 visitors equivalent to 91.8 per cent of the visitors entered through the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, with 54,572 on international flights and 5,493 on domestic flights.
Also, 5,365 visitors entered through the seaport out of which 963 came by cruise ship and sea ferries from outside Tanzania and 4,402 by Sea Ferries from Dar es Salaam.
French accounted for 9,570 beating Italians with 8,378 while Poland competed with 5,702 over Germans’ 5,632.
Tourists from Europe have consistently dominated the market by accounting for 55,566 making 84.9% of the total visitors in February 2023.
But in January, female visitors continued to outnumber their male counterparts who were 23,326 whereas 42,104 were female.
The reason why females outnumber their male counterparts is uncertain as male visitors decreased by 29.0 and females increased by 17.0 per cent in comparison to the preceding month of January 2023.
