How Sovereign Wealth Funds Invest in Tourism and Hospitality

At a glance

• 38 deals by 23 sovereign funds in our tables.
• 8 carry an amount we can show in USD; 0 are USD 1 billion or more.
• Most active fund: Brunei Investment Agency (BIA) with 5 deals.
• Main structure: direct investment.

Key findings

1. Our profile tables list 38 tourism and hospitality deals across 23 funds, 3% of all deals we track.
2. Most active: BIA (5), MNRTF (3), SDC (3).
3. Most common structure: direct investment (18 deals, 47%). Co-investments and joint ventures: 11. Fund commitments: 1.
4. Biggest amount in our tables: USD 938M, KIC in InterContinental Hong Kong (2015).
5. By fund home region: Asia 14, Africa 9, North America 7.
6. 29 operating funds name tourism and hospitality as a focus sector on their profiles.
7. 13 of these deals are dated 2024 or later.
8. Top stages: real estate (24), credit (6), infrastructure (3).

Most active funds

Biggest deals in our tables

Structures and stages

Regional patterns

Most common target countries: United States (7), Morocco (3), Singapore (3), United Kingdom (2), Saudi Arabia (2), Georgia (2).

Partners named most often: CDG (2), BlueCove (1), Silk Road Group (1), Reliance Industries (1), Sud Partners (1), SMIT (1).

Mini case studies

SBM: a strategic anchor (FRC)

• Holds a controlling 64.21 percent of Societe des Bains de Mer, part of it inalienable.
• When: Long-term holding
• Why: The company is central to Monaco's economy and tourism.
• Src: S1

Hotel fund for Africa (FSDEA)

• The fund set up a dedicated hotel fund as part of its alternatives plan.
• When: 2014 / Size: USD 500M
• Why: Hospitality was singled out as a priority within African real estate.
• Outcome: Hospitality remains a core alternatives sector in 2026.
• Src: S7

Pandemic support for Mauritian firms (Mauritius Investment Corporation Ltd (MIC))

• MIC was set up to put equity, bonds and notes into companies hit by COVID-19, many in hotels, manufacturing and leisure.
• When: 2020 to 2024 / Size: MUR 56.8B to 60 entities
• Why: Support economic development and financial stability during the pandemic.
• Outcome: Investees have begun to repay early: MUR 3.1B returned by November 2025, with MUR 3.8B more committed.
• Src: S1, S2

What this means for founders, managers and family offices

• Know the stage. Real estate is the most common stage here (24 deals), then credit (6). Seed deals: 0.
• Show the operator, the demand case and the local jobs story.
• National tourism projects often have the fund as anchor and a global brand as operator.
• Fund commitments are 3% of deals here. Most money goes direct, so managers should lead with co-investment rights.
• Family offices: 11 co-investments and joint ventures in our tables. Sitting beside a sovereign fund is more realistic than raising from one; start with the funds listed above.

Data notes: Counts come from the investment, case study and size tables in our fund profiles. They cover the deals each profile lists, not every deal a fund has done, so read them as a guide, not a full census. USD figures marked approx are either stated in USD in the profile or converted at the exchange rate implied by a fund profile headline in the same currency. Amounts are as the profile states them, so some are the full deal size and some are the fund's own ticket. Sector is the tag on each deal in our tables.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the fund profiles linked in the tables. Source ids such as S3 refer to the numbered sources on each fund's own profile page, where the original document is listed with its date.