In Zanzibar, a little less than two years ago, TUI presented itself as a great opportunity to take over an existing hotel and to develop the first hotel of its new brand ‘The Mora’, making its debut in the high-end segment. The official opening of The Mora Zanzibar was attended by Sebastian Ebel, CEO of TUI Group; Peter Krueger, CEO of Vacation Experiences and Head of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions; Artur Gerber, managing director of TUI Blue & The Mora; and Reda Sweed, hotel manager. The president of Zanzibar came to give his blessing the morning after the official opening. The five-star hotel is located on the beach of Muyuni (East Zanzibar) and has 250 suites and four restaurants. This is TUI’s fourth hotel at the destination, where it already had three other establishments: two Riu Hotels & Resorts and a TUI Blue, but TUI says new ones are already planned, including a second Riu Palace, the five-star category of the immensely popular RIU chain, which is also immensely popular in the Netherlands. But The Mora is different. The new brand is derived from the Latin word meaning “pause” and the hotel experience is designed to appeal to a new type of tourist looking for contemporary, relaxed luxury with a flexible and highly personalized approach. “Our new hotel brand, The Mora, embraces a current trend: experiences are becoming more important than possessions,” says Ebel. For its part, Krueger states that its goal is to expand TUI Hotels & Resorts’ portfolio to 600 hotels worldwide in the medium term. “For the past 18 months, we have been adding an average of ten new hotels per quarter to our portfolio that will be implemented in the coming years and they are on the right track,” he said. photo: Sebastian Ebel (second from left) and co.
