The Zanzibar government announced it would be accommodating around 1,000 Ukrainian tourists that are stuck on the island following the ongoing Russian attack in their home country.
The Ukrainian Ambassador to Kenya is scheduled to meet Zanzibar officials and the stranded tourists to assist them in leaving the island.
The government of Zanzibar said this week that there are about 1,000 tourists from Ukraine who are staying in various tourist hotels on the island. Officials are communicating with them and working closely with the Ukrainian embassy in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to find a solution to help the stranded Ukrainian tourists fly back home.
The island’s government had consulted with and invited the Ukrainian Ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Andril Pravednyk, to visit and meet his country’s stranded tourists now living in different hotels to find a way to fly them to Poland.
The Zanzibar Tourism Minister, Leila Mohammed Musa, said the stranded Ukrainians are still being accommodated in various hotels on the tourist island while receiving necessary h
ospitality services and other humanitarian support. They are being hosted in special hotels free of charge.
The government of Zanzibar is currently helping the Ukrainian visitors.
They are running out of money to cover for hotel bills. Most of them have completed their visiting itineraries on the island, Leila said.
President Hussein Mwinyi told journalists on Monday that he was aware of the stranded Ukrainian tourists who had requested his government for help.
“We are in discussions with the owners of the hotels to see how we can help them,” Zanzibar President Dr. Hussein Mwinyi said at the isles’ State House on Monday this week.
He said the Ukrainians have asked for a continued stay for the time being, mostly arriving to the island as tourists and housed in hotels. They have spent their holiday cash and cannot meet additional hotel expenses, he said.
The Zanzibar President said his government, upon receiving the request, liaised with tourist hotel operators where the Ukrainian tourists are housed in order to allow them to remain without having to pay their hotel bills.
“We have been receiving many tourists from Ukraine, and at present we have 900 of them who cannot go back home and have asked for assistance,” he said.
Some hotels agreed to keep the Ukrainians without demanding payment and the government will look into tax dues demanded from the hotels.
The Ukrainian airspace has been closed to all civilian flights following Russia’s military attack.
Ukraine is an upcoming tourist market for Zanzibar, sending big groups of tourists, each with more than 1,000 citizens to visit the island.
Image courtesy of A.Tairo
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