Posted 02Feb 2012.

Zanzibar is one of our favourite destinations in the Real Africa portfolio and has become increasingly popular as a beach extension for our safari holidays in East Africa as it works well with Kenya and Tanzania in particular.

Zanzibar Tourism Commission Director Ali Mizra said tourism is currently the Island's leading income generator and it contributes up to 70 percent of export value in foreign income. Zanzibar is looking at tourism as the leading foreign revenue source, as the number of foreign tourists visiting the island has been growing in the past years. The annual growth is around 10% approximately which has been put down to a greatly improved infrastructure. This includes the newly modernised airport with its improved runways and better road connections to the hotels and resorts.

Tourism is the fast growing economic sector in Zanzibar. Competing with other Indian Ocean Islands of Seychelles, Reunion and Mauritius, Zanzibar received about 200,000 tourists last year which was much better than predicted. The European economic crisis has affected Zanzibar's tourism, but new strategies to woo Chinese, Indians and other tourists from emerging markets of the Far East would keep the Island's tourism afloat.

Many of the hotels have also recently been renovated and upgraded with a focus on the luxury end of the market in recent years. Zanzibar boasts of 20 five-star hotels out of 263 hotels established on the beach sites and the historic Stone Town. It is in direct competition with its fellow Vanilla Islands of the Seychelles and Madagascar as well as the nearby Maldives.

However Zanzibar has such a unique culture and history with its fabulous old Arabic architecture in Stone Town, combined with the amazing white sand and azure waters of the Indian Ocean, that it really stands out as a jewel in the crown of the Indian Ocean islands.