The Canada Israel group will renovate and manage the Galei Kinneret hotel in Tiberias. The company signed a 25-year agreement with the Morad family, owners of the property. The lease is for NIS 7 million a year. Canada Israel also intends to invest NIS 32 million in renovating the hotel. Renovations will commence shortly, with the reopening scheduled a year from now. Renovation will include an upgrade for the rooms and public spaces and construction of rooms with private pools.
Canada Israel's hotel arm, Play, which is managed by Reuven Elkes, includes a hotel that the group plans to open in six months in the Midtown project in Tel Aviv. The project is for 120 rooms and commercial and leisure buildings, including a Zappa club. The group has set a target of 1,000 rooms, most of which will be integrated with real estate projects under construction by the company. The company currently manages 500 rooms in various hotels, including two hotels in Tiberias: the Lake House Tiberias Hotel (formerly Hamei Tveria) with 250 rooms and Hotel Villa Europa 1917 Tiberias, a boutique hotel with 31 rooms. The company is also involved in the Harlington Ashkelon Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn).
Tiberias is a challenging city for the tourist industry, due to its underutilized tourism potential as an attraction for pilgrimage tourism. The group believes in the tourism demand for the area, in contrast to real estate demand; Canada Israel is not building residential projects in Tiberias.
The plan is to turn Galei Kinneret into a luxury hotel, while the Ministry of Tourism is emphasizing the shortage of lower-priced and more affordable accommodation. The group stresses its plans to provide lower-cost solutions in other hotels. In all of its hotel activity, Canada Israel's plan is to manage its hotels by itself, while considering construction of additional hotels at major tourist destinations outside of Tel Aviv, including Eilat, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem.
Galei Kinneret, who opened in 1946, is located on the shore of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). It has 120 rooms, a pool, a private beach, and a sports club and spa. Galei Kinneret is managed by Rimonim (Israel Land Development Hotels, acquired by the Dan Hotel chain). The acquisition agreement did not include the hotels merely managed by Rimonim, but only the hotels that were owned. Negotiations were consequently begun with a number of hotel chains in Israel to manage Galei Kinneret.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 4, 2019
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019