Zanzibar has launched a national branding committee in tourism aimed to promote and market Zanzibar as a destination.

Launching the committee last week at the Zanzibar Park Hyatt hotel, The Minister of Information, Tourism and Heritage, Mr. Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, said the committee has been tasked to promote and market Zanzibar islands as potential tourist destinations. The committee is a groundbreaking group consisting of 26 prominent personalities in tourism.

“This is a milestone to the tourism industry as the first national committee to oversee direct national interests of the tourism industry is launched,” said Mr. Kombo, adding that since Zanzibar adopted liberalization of trade and accepted tourism as a second Forex earner, it didn’t have such a platform to promote tourism as one entity.

“We used to have everyone, each of us, promote and market Zanzibar in his/her own way. It was fragmented. This committee is strategically established and very focused,” said the Minister. The idea, floated by tourism stakeholders, strategically focuses to uplift Zanzibar’s international profile and make the destination more visible across the world.

The committee is comprised of 26-plus tourism stakeholders drawn from both the public and private sectors with a commitment to excel in tourism and includes international investors and senior government planners.

Members of the committee interviewed after the launch said the Zanzibar National Branding Committee was long overdue since it was needed. “The branding committee is a roadmap towards achieving big results in tourism [at the] national and international [levels]. Zanzibar is a unique destination; it only needs a small push to achieve big results,” said Ali Suleiman Amour, a longtime local investor in tourism and also vice chairman of the Zanzibar Association of Tour Operators.

Tourism plays an important role in placing Zanzibar’s economy on a sustainable inclusive growth trajectory and has demonstrated a higher growth rate than any other sector in Zanzibar. The tourism sector in Zanzibar performs strongly, and the trend is not only positive but also promising. The length of stay for tourists who visit Zanzibar has been increasing steadily, where currently it stands at 8 days compared to 6 days, 5 years ago, according to Zanzibar Commission for Tourism data made available for this purpose of publication.