About us

Moivaro History

The Moivaro Group was founded in 1999 by Mr. Gijs de Raadt in Tanzania. Gijs was born in Uganda, studied at the School of Tourism and graduated in African Studies at Leiden University Netherlands. After his studies, Gijs traveled and worked in 14 different African countries. During his travels he kept wondering how to best contribute to the development of a country. He reflected upon the so-called ‘boomerang effect’, where he realized that often projects were good for some but not for all. For instance, a container full of shoes being brought to a small village in Tanzania. Many people were very happy with their new shoes, but the local shoemaker and the market salesmen who earned their living selling shoes, were out of work. With this realization he wanted to create a sustainable living for local Tanzanians.

When Gijs started building his first lodge in Arusha, people from the village began approaching him for job opportunities. At least 40 people per day - old, young, educated, uneducated, everyone was looking for work. That’s when Gijs realized how he could contribute; by creating as many jobs as possible. Together with his family, he set out on a mission to train and empower the people living in the area to enable them to take care of their own lives, children and families.

What started as a dream, with only 1 lodge and 4 jobs, has grown into a large company, with hundreds of employees on the payroll and a spin-off to the wider community. Over the years it has become our strong belief that providing the opportunity to learn, work, and grow is the best way to support the development of Tanzania. By staying at a Moivaro property, you can be assured to contribute to our wider mission of empowerment and poverty reduction. We hope to continue training staff members and keep growing in order to provide more and more jobs in different areas.

Our mission

The Moivaro Group offers holiday accommodations in East Africa. The company has three main objectives in all it’s undertakings:

To give guests an exceptional Africa experience with good value for money
To create intercultural exchange and understanding through the hospitality industry in Africa
To contribute to better lives in Africa by providing ten thousand jobs with a spin-off to the wider community

Our videos

Welcome to the Moivaro Group, where we hope to make you feel at home in the beautiful country of Tanzania. Catch a glimpse of the places you will stay at through our videos here.

The Moivaro properties are prized for their strategic locations at or nearby places of interest for tourists in Africa. Most are set in a natural environment, near the national parks, beaches, or so called transit cities. The properties can be divided in three categories; urban and suburban lodges, bush lodges and tented camps, and beach resorts.

The accommodations differ in size, type, luxury-range and atmosphere, but they are the same in the sense that they always aim to provide a ‘local African experience’. The various properties strive to emphasize the local culture, habits and surroundings in the setting, construction and operation of the lodges, whereby local staff is employed. Local products are used as much as possible for constructing, cooking and decoration.

All Moivaro properties include a restaurant and bar service, and offer a varied range of activities (link to activities page) that can be booked in advance or at the lodge itself.