ZANZIBAR INTRODUCES TOURIST POLICE
(Posted 12th October 2013)
Tourism stakeholders in Zanzibar have hailed the move by the islands’ government to introduce dedicated tourism police patrols, aimed to reassure visitors of their safety after some less than desirable negative publicity over incidents involving tourist visitors aside from the general reporting about the security situation on the main Zanzibar island of Unguja.
Information sent from a regular source in Zanzibar speaks of several arrests having been affected already, where the suspects were alleged to have committed or were in the process of committing crimes against tourist visitors, though no details of those alleged crimes was made available.
However, a quote was sent given by the island government’s Minister of Tourism Said Ali Mbarouk who reportedly said: ‘We have established a tourist patrol unit and have established tourist committees in all the districts’.
The minister was also quoted to have encouraged the private sector to come on board and participate in all such activities as they would benefit from a better image of Zanzibar abroad while promising that additional police stations would be constructed to provide better security.
Zanzibar has of late been able to position itself as a key Indian Ocean island destination and has been given indication already by the Vanilla Island Organization to receive a formal invitation to join the presently 7 member strong island group. Watch this space.
