Israeli hotel company Isrotel plans to increase the number of hotels it operates in the State from 19 to 30 by 2025. According to local paper Globes, eight of the 11 new hotels will be open by 2022.
While the company's focus up to now has been in Eilat (where it operates eight properties), the company plans to more than double its presence in Tel Aviv from two hotels to five. "We believe in Tel Aviv, which combines business and tourism and is becoming a strong international brand," Isrotel CEO Lior Raviv told Globes, noting the city's municipality has been "encouraging and pushing" for hotel development, since the ROI on hospitality developments is higher than on residential developments. "If we used to come and talk about a hotel instead of offices they would tell us that offices have better returns," he said. "Today, developers are forgoing residential construction and preferring to build hotels."
Properties in the Isrotel pipeline include the 154-guestroom North Yarkon Tel Aviv Port Hotel, slated to open in 2021; the 235-room Leon Towers, opening in 2022; a 125-room luxury hotel in the former Shekem building on Jerusalem Blvd. in Jaffa due to open in 2022; an 87-room, adaptive reuse boutique hotel at Ahad Ha'am and Nahlat Binyamin Sts. and a 122-room hotel at 99 Dizengoff, both due to open in 2022. The latter hotel is part of a joint venture with White City Buildings.
The company also is building the 250-room Zion Square hotel in Jerusalem, due to open in 2022; a 43-suite luxury hotel at Ein Bokek by the Dead Sea, also set for 2022; and the 163-room Kedma hotel in Sde Boke that will open next year.