Unguja. Zanzibar significantly boosted the tourism sector in 2024, welcoming 736,755 international visitors, up 15.4% from the arrival of 638,498 in 2023.
The report was co-produced by the Supreme Government Statisticians Office and the Zanzibar Tourism Commission.
Growth is slightly below the 800,000 target set, but highlights the growing appeal of Zanzibar as a major African destination, driven by increased global connectivity and sustained interest from the European market.
European tourists continue to dominate the tourist scenery of Zanzibar, accounting for 71.6% of total arrivals. This is 527,845 visitors in 2024.
Among them, Italy emerged as the top sauce market, contributing to 87,202 tourists (11.8%), with Germany (9.7%), France (9.4%) and Poland (7%) in close contributions. The UK also maintains a strong presence with more than 42,000 UK travelers.
In particular, other emerging markets such as Poland, India, China and Ukraine showed significant improvements, indicating that these regions had an increase in the number of visitors by 12.8% compared to the previous year.
While European tourists continued to dominate the total arrivals, African countries showed robust growth, highlighting the importance of travelling to Zanzibar's tourist economy within Africa.
African countries contributed to 98,402 visitors in 2024, accounting for 13.4% of international arrivals. This shows a growing trend and interest in regional travel among African travelers in Zanzibar, up 16.9% from the 84,158 African visitors recorded in 2023.
South Africa and Kenya led the continent with tourist numbers. South Africa is Africa's top sauce market, bringing 31,254 tourists, an increase of 28.6% compared to the previous year. Kenya continues with 23,530 visitors, reflecting a growth of 26.2%.
Other African countries have contributed to 40,475 visitors, including travelers from countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique. Egypt fell slightly with 3,143 tourists. This has decreased by 0.8% since 2023.
Sebeid Amani Karume International Airport in Zanzibar received 646,830 visitors, or 87.8% of the total, with 592,613 people arriving on international flights. The sea arrivals consisted of 89,925 visitors, including 5,869 cruise ship passengers and 84,056 people arriving via ferries from mainland Tanzania.
Statistics show that Zanzibar remains a leisure-first destination. An overwhelming 98.3% of tourists in 2024 came on vacation, but only 0.6% visited friends and relatives, while 1.1% cited other purposes. The gender distribution was slightly leaning towards women, with 51.9% of visitors being female and 48.1% of men being male. The number of male and female visitors increased by 10.7% and 20.1%, respectively.
Regarding age demographics, 86% of visitors were between the ages 15 and 64 (working age population), each accounting for 7% of arrivals.
On average, tourists spent 8 nights in Zanzibar in 2024, with about 19.5% of all visitors staying for exactly 7 days. The island has 9.2 million bed spaces per year, of which 5.9 million were sold in July, translated to an occupancy of 64.3% during its peak month.
Among the fast-growing sources, Ukraine recorded an increase of 62.3%, China increased by 78.7%, and Japan increased by 92.7%. These figures reflect the expansion of Zanzibar's global reach and the success of its marketing efforts in non-traditional tourism markets.
Commentators say Zanzibar's magnificent tourism performance in 2024 is a testament to its global appeal, infrastructure investments and sustained efforts to diversify its visitor base.
With steady growth in traditional and emerging markets, the archipelago is ready for an even more vibrant 2025.
