Dar es Salaam. Tourists arriving from Italy outnumbered other parts of the world in the number of visitors who came to Zanzibar in January 2023, ousting both Poland and Ukraine who were on top in January 2022, the tourism statistical release shows.
The release which was prepared in collaboration between Chief Government Statistician, the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism and the Immigration department shows that Zanzibar recorded 68,813 international visitors in January 2023.
This was the highest number of visitors recorded by the isles in January since 2018 representing a positive direction towards a rebound beyond the pre-pandemic days.
The Italians accounted for 10,338 (15 percent) of the total arrivals which were mainly via the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport.
According to the report it is an increase of 62.1 percent compared with 42,443 visitors recorded in January 2022 and increased by 3.1 percent compared with 66,720 visitors recorded in the preceding month of December 2022.
Italy was closely followed in the second slot by French who recorded 8,658 whereas Polish tourist stayed in the top five at number 3 with 6,102 arrivals.
Others on the top 10 arrivals include German (4,634), Scandinavian countries (3,588), British (2,615), Dutch, Czech Republic (2,293), United States of America (1,858) and Kenya (1,698) became the top African country in that descending order.
Tourists from Europe continued to dominate the market by accounting (81.9 percent) of the total visitors in January 2023.
The data shows that 65,715 visitors equivalent to 95.4 percent of the total visitors entered through Airport, whereby 58,489 visitors of them entered by international flights and 7,226 by domestic flights.
“The remaining 3,098 visitors entered through seaport of whom 20 entered Pemba by Sea ferries from Kenya and 3,078 by Sea Ferries from Tanzania Mainland,” reads the report.
According to the report, the total of 701,189 bed-spaces was available in January 2023 of which 578,719 beds were sold during in January representing a bed occupancy rate of 82.5 percent.
Data also shows that just like in December 2022, there were more female arrivals compared to males with women accounting for 35,978, whereas men accounted for 32,835 visitors.
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Monrovia — The Rwanda Minister of State responsible for Health, Dr. Yvan Butera, cautioned that while the country is beginning to see positive signals in its fight against the Marburg virus, the outbreak is “not yet over”. He, however, expressed hope that “we are headed in that direction”. The minister said the epidemiology trend, since the disease was first discovered in the country more than a month ago, is moving towards fewer cases.
Dr. Butera, who was giving updates during an online briefing yesterday, said in the past two weeks, only two deaths were recorded while 14 people recovered from the disease. He said Rwanda was expanding its testing capacity with 16,000 people already inoculated against the disease.
The priority right now, Butera said, is “rapid testing and detection”.
Marburg is a highly virulent disease transmitted through human-to-human contact or contact with an infected animal. The fatality rate of cases, which has varied over the period, is more than 50%, according to the World Health Organization. WHO said the highest number of new confirmed cases in Rwanda were reported in the first two weeks of the outbreak. There’s been a “sharp decline” in the last few weeks, with the country now tackling over 60 cases.
At Thursday’s briefing, a senior official of the Africa Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Ngashi Ngongo, said mpox – the other infectious disease outbreak that countries in the region are fighting – was been reported in 19 countries, with Mauritius being the latest country to confirm a case. He said although no new cases have been recorded in recent weeks in several countries where outbreaks occurred previously – including Cameroon, South Africa, Guinea, and Gabon – Uganda confirmed its first Mpox death. This, he said, is one of two fatalities reported outside Central Africa.
Dr. Ngashi revealed that there was an increase in cases in Liberia and Uganda. He said mpox cases were still on an upward trend.
“The situation is not yet under control.”
Source: allafrica.com
