An Israeli real estate investment firm is reportedly seeking to shift a significant chunk of its US$500m portfolio into hotels and resorts in the emerging tourism paradise of Zanzibar. 

According to The Times of Israel, RM Group, which has already invested in several hotels on the tropical island and has an office in the capital of Stone Town, has identified a shortage of quality rooms in what it views as a tourism destination with incredible untapped potential. 

“We see potential there for large numbers of tourists – and that is also the government’s ambition. The rooms currently available aren’t great and it needs to upgrade to compete with places like the Seychelles and Thailand. As well as hotels, it’s lacking in tourist infrastructure like restaurants,” Matan Pertman, co-CEO of RM Group, told the publication. 

RM Group is putting money into new hotels and resort complexes in the beach towns of Pongwe, Kiwengwa, Nungwi and elsewhere, much of it with Israeli money under the fund’s management. It has already worked on an 84-room four-star resort, and has a further 450 rooms in Zanzibar in the pipeline.

Before COVID-19, Israel was a valuable international source market for Tanzania, accounting for 2.8% of all international arrivals in 2017, behind only the United States, Germany, Italy, India and the UK. 

The route between Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and Zanzibar’s Abeid Amani Karume International Airport is well serviced, with demand steadily rebounding for one- and two-stop flights offered by Ethiopian Airlines, Emirates, flydubai, and Qatar Airways.

Year-round direct flights to and from the archipelago are available from Dubai, Doha and Istanbul, in addition to seasonal nonstop schedules servicing Rome, Milan, Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.