Men chilling at the shores of the Indian Ocean at Nungwi beach. Picture: Reuters
Zanzibar Island has been named Africa's leading beach destination by the 29th World Travel Awards (WTA), for the second year running, APA can report on Tuesday.
It topped the WTA 2022 rankings, beating some of Africa's best, including Cape Town, South Africa, Diani, Kenya, and Dakhla, Morocco.
The ceremony took place on Saturday night at the Africa & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya, attended by leading travel industry decision-makers and stakeholders from across Africa.
The Indian Ocean island, a semi-autonomous entity within Tanzania is a popular destination for tourists, with tourism accounting for 25% of its GDP, ahead of agricultural activity.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of tourists flocked to the island's beaches which are promoted as a draw for tourists.
Zanzibar is an archipelago consisting of several islands in the Indian Ocean.
Low-cost airline FlySafair recently announced that it added 11 new routes to its list of destinations, including Zanzibar.
It said that Air Services Licensing Council of South Africa (ASLC) had approved its application to operate flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Gaborone, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, and Victoria Falls.
In addition, the airline had been approved for frequencies from Johannesburg to Bulawayo, Nairobi and Seychelles, as well as between Cape Town and Windhoek. Its application for routes between Johannesburg and Harare, Windhoek and Zanzibar and additional frequencies to Mauritius is still pending.
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