Compulsory policy
ZIC, $44 an adult, $22 a child
Valid for
92 days from the day you land
Medical ceiling
$50,000, emergencies only
Not covered
Cancellation, sports injury, pre-existing conditions
Where to buy
inbound.visitzanzibar.go.tz, before you fly
Cover to add
$30 to $140 for a fortnight
The short answer
- Zanzibar travel insurance means two policies, not one. The compulsory ZIC one at the border, and your own on top of it.
- The compulsory one is emergency cover with a $50,000 ceiling. Good for a broken ankle treated on the island. Not built for anything that needs an aeroplane.
- Sports injuries are excluded. That takes out diving and kitesurfing, which is most of what gets booked on this island.
- Adding proper cover costs less than the compulsory fee. Thirty to a hundred and forty dollars buys a fortnight of the cover the ZIC policy leaves out.
What the compulsory ZIC policy costs and covers
Since October 2024, every foreign visitor to Zanzibar has had to hold an inbound policy issued by the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation. It is bought online before you fly, the certificate is emailed to you, and it is checked at immigration alongside your visa. It applies to the islands only. Mainland Tanzania does not ask for it.
| What | Figure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | $44 | Flat fee. A four day trip and a three month one cost the same. |
| Child | $22 | A family of four therefore pays $132 before anything else. |
| Validity | 92 days | Counted from the date you enter, which covers any normal holiday. |
| Emergency medical | up to $50,000 | Treatment, hospital accommodation and surgery on the island. |
| Also included | baggage | Loss, theft, delay and damage, plus repatriation of remains. |
Check the figures yourself
What it does not cover
This is the part the government notice does not lead with, and the part almost every article about the new rule leaves out. The ZIC policy is an entry requirement designed to stop the island carrying the cost of uninsured tourists. It was never designed to be your holiday insurance.
| The claim | ZIC policy | Your own policy |
|---|---|---|
| Broken ankle, treated in Stone Town | Covered, to $50,000 | Covered, usually higher |
| Flown home for treatment | No | Standard on any decent policy |
| Decompression injury after a dive | No, sports are excluded | Only with scuba named and the depth inside the limit |
| Kitesurfing injury at Paje | No | Only with a risk sports option ticked |
| Trip cancelled before you fly | No | The claim people make most often |
| Pre-existing condition flares up | No | Covered once declared, sometimes for a loading |
| Bag stolen from a beach bungalow | Covered, modest limit | Covered, and it will pay for the laptop |
Read the third and fourth rows again if you have already booked a dive course or a week of kite lessons. Every beach on the east coast sells both, the ZIC wording excludes accidents during sports, and the two facts sit side by side without anyone pointing it out.
Comparing travel insurance for Zanzibar
Four names come up repeatedly for this part of the world. What separates them is shape rather than quality: a trip policy with a start and an end date, or a subscription that renews until you stop it. Pick the shape first, then read the sports wording.
Monthly subscription- Best for
- Long or open ended trips, remote workers, anyone without a return date
- Watch
- Cancellation cover is thin. Read the adventure sports wording before you dive.
Trip policy- Best for
- Activity heavy trips, because the covered sports list is long and published
- Watch
- Sold through local underwriters, so cover and price change with your country of residence.
No partner link here. Quote direct on their own site.
Trip policy- Best for
- Travellers who want cancellation included and bills paid directly rather than reimbursed
- Watch
- Watersports usually sit in a paid add on. Check the depth limit, not just the word diving.
No partner link here. Quote direct on their own site.
Monthly subscription- Best for
- Europeans on long stays who want health cover rather than holiday cover
- Watch
- Built around residency in Europe. Not the right shape for a two week holiday.
No partner link here. Quote direct on their own site.
The three without a link are here because they belong in the comparison. Their absence from our partner list is not a judgement on them.
How to read a quote in two minutes
Medical evacuation, and what it actually costs
Zanzibar has hospitals and it has clinics used to treating tourists. What it does not have is the full range of specialist care, so anything serious travels: to Dar es Salaam across the channel, or more often to Nairobi, which is where serious cases from across East Africa end up.
An air ambulance is priced in the tens of thousands of dollars. Operators and safari insurers quote roughly ten to fifty thousand for an East African evacuation to Nairobi, depending on the distance and the aircraft, and that is the transport alone. The treatment at the other end is a separate bill. Against a $50,000 combined ceiling, one evacuation can exhaust the compulsory policy on its own.
There is a cheap local fix worth knowing about. AMREF Flying Doctors sell a short term membership, around $30 per person for fourteen days or $50 for two months, covering evacuation within a thousand kilometre radius of Nairobi. Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia all fall inside it. It pays for the flight and nothing else, so it sits alongside a travel policy rather than replacing one. Two cocktails at a hotel bar cost about the same, and this buys off the biggest number on the page.
Divers have one more address to note. The only recompression chamber in Tanzania is in Stone Town, roughly an hour from the northern and eastern dive sites. That is close by regional standards and a long way when it matters, which is why the evacuation clause is the one anyone diving here should read first.
Diving and kitesurfing: the exclusions to read before you book
What you need from a policy changes completely depending on whether you are doing a try dive at Mnemba, drift diving the walls off Pemba, or riding the lagoon at Paje for a fortnight. Pick the one that matches your trip.
Recreational diver
A try dive, guided snorkelling or a few leisure dives to 18 or 20 metres during your stay.
What has to be covered
- A watersports option ticked, with scuba named in the wording
- Hyperbaric treatment and medical costs paid, not reimbursed later
- A 24 hour assistance line that answers from East Africa
- Depth covered to at least 20 or 30 metres
The Zanzibar detail
The nearest recompression chamber is in Stone Town, an hour from the northern and eastern dive sites. For anything serious, evacuation off the archipelago has to be covered too.
Rough budget
$30 to $80 for one to two weeks, watersports option included
What we would do
A normal travel policy is enough at this level, as long as diving is named and the depth you actually dive to is inside the limit. The word to look for is scuba, not watersports.
Budgets are indicative and move a lot with age, region of cover, depth and the options you tick. Partner link. Only a named quote is binding.
Buying the compulsory policy
Three minutes on inbound.visitzanzibar.go.tz, one form per traveller, card payment, certificate by email. Buy it a week or two before you fly rather than the night before, because the portal has a reputation for being slow or briefly unreachable, and that is a bad thing to discover with a flight in the morning.
The full walkthrough, including what immigration asks for at the desk and how it fits with the e-visa application, sits on the Zanzibar visa page. Both charges land in the same week, so it is worth reading them together when you work out what the trip costs.
Questions people ask about insurance for Zanzibar
Do I need special travel insurance for Zanzibar?
You need two things, and they are not the same thing. The ZIC inbound policy is compulsory, costs forty four dollars and is checked at immigration. Your own travel insurance is not compulsory and covers everything the ZIC one does not, starting with repatriation and a cancelled holiday. Turning up with only the first is the mistake this page exists to prevent.
How much does the mandatory travel insurance policy cost in Zanzibar?
Forty four dollars per adult and twenty two dollars per child, for a stay of up to ninety two days. A family of four pays a hundred and thirty two dollars. It is a flat fee, so a four day trip costs the same as a three month one.
What does the Zanzibar travel insurance cover?
Emergency medical treatment up to fifty thousand dollars, hospital accommodation and surgery, lost or delayed baggage, and repatriation of remains. It is emergency cover for accidents that happen on the island. It does not fly you home for treatment, it does not refund a trip you had to cancel, and it does not pay out on a sports injury.
Does the Zanzibar insurance cover diving?
No. Injuries sustained during sports are excluded, which takes out scuba diving, kitesurfing and quad biking in one line. Zanzibar sells all three on every beach. If you plan to do any of them, the cover that matters is the sports option on your own policy, with the activity named in the wording.
How long does it take to get Zanzibar travel insurance?
The ZIC certificate is usually issued within minutes of payment, and the portal emails it to you. Allow a day or two anyway, because the site has a reputation for being slow or unreachable at busy moments, and you do not want to be dealing with that the evening before a flight.
What is the official website for applying for Zanzibar travel insurance?
inbound.visitzanzibar.go.tz. It is the only official channel, and the policy is issued by the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation. Intermediaries offering to handle it for a fee are doing the same three minute form you can do yourself.
Can I buy the Zanzibar insurance on arrival?
It is meant to be bought before you travel and it is checked at the airport, so treat it as a pre-departure task rather than an arrival one. Some airlines check it at the departure gate. Buying it in advance costs the same and removes the question entirely.
Do I still need my own travel insurance if I have paid the ZIC fee?
Yes, and that is the whole point of paying attention here. Fifty thousand dollars sounds generous until you price an air ambulance out of the archipelago, which starts around ten thousand dollars and can run much higher. The ZIC policy also ignores cancellation, which is the claim holidaymakers actually make most often.
Is Zanzibar high risk for malaria?
Zanzibar has a far lower malaria rate than mainland Tanzania, and many visitors travel without taking prophylaxis. It is still a malaria zone, and the decision belongs to a travel clinic rather than a website. What matters for insurance is that treatment for an illness picked up on the island falls inside the emergency medical cover on both policies.