Latest update March 28th, 2025 6:05 AM
Dec 25, 2008 News
…eyes Timehri for another hotel
Chief Executive Officer of the Roraima Group of Companies, Capt. Gerry Gouveia currently has his eyes set on Timehri to establish another hotel.
Gouveia, who recently acquired Duke Lodge, in Duke Street, Kingston, is currently working to have the Roraima brand placed on what he calls a Heritage Hotel.
According to Gouveia, it was because of the history of the building and after the government spent some $80M (President Bharrat Jagdeo says about $30M) rehabilitating the premises that it was presentable enough for him to acquire the building for some $140M. He is spending even more money on the structure before placing the Roraima brand on it.
Duke Lodge was a government property that was put to tender together with a property located on Barrack and Parade Streets and the building that houses the Human Service and Social Security.
Captain Gerry Gouveia said that he was not too keen on tendering for the building but was urged by a companion and, upon inspecting the building, he recognised that there was a lot of potential in the historical structure.
“Duke Lodge is really a wonderful heritage building with a lot of sophisticated history.”
The Roraima business started out with an airplane and so Roraima Airways was born.
According to Gouveia, over the years as the airline business grew, clients who would come with their own planes would require handling, clearances which led to the establishment of Roraima Ground Handling.
Today, it is the most profitable Roraima entity, handling among the airlines, Delta and a number of smaller airlines that operate between Guyana and Suriname and Guyana and Brazil.
He added that in time people wanted more than just ground handling in that they wanted ticketing arrangements to take care of and this according to Gouveia led to the development of Roraima Travel Agency, an accredited IATA agent.
Gouveia noted that the business climate in Guyana was dramatically changing and tourism was a niche market that had a lot of potential. “I knew that our tourism product in Guyana was wonderful…It excited me to share the beauty of Guyana with other Guyanese and other visitors.”
This, Gouveia said, led to the creation of Roraima Tours which provides a variety of tour packages to places such as Kaieteur Falls, Orinduik and the Rupununi.
He noted that this led to the establishment of Arrowpoint Nature Resort in the jungles of Guyana, which would serve also as another destination where persons could overnight or even spend several days.
Gouveia said that when the business began to take off, it was confronted with a predicament in the image of finding hotels for people, noting that the hotels in the city were being used but it was not always possible to access the premier hotels.
This caused a problem in that he was always seeking to maintain the high quality associated with the Roraima brand.
This brought to fruition the Roraima Residence Inn, which is a boutique hotel, and according to him, with that the business rose to new heights in that the company could facilitate the arrival, handling, accommodating and touring of visitors.
Gouveia added that another venture that caught his eyes was when the government advertised for an executive lounge to be set up at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
Captain Gouveia stated that the Roraima Executive Lounge is currently the pride and joy of the enterprise.
He noted that it is arguably one of the best lounges in this section of the world.
Gouveia added also that he was very interested in taking the Roraima branding to Linden, pointing out that negotiations for Watooka House were already in train but Government subsequently withdrew the offer.
According to Gouveia, Linden could be used as a launching pad for trips into the interior and was optimistic that Watooka House will be up for sale again soon. There is an airstrip that would reduce the cost of visits to the hinterland and also reduce the flight time.
With regards to the skeptics as it relates to the business climate in Guyana, Gouveia said that he believes in the future of the country.
“I know that we have difficulties but I don’t believe that those difficulties are going to be so humongous that it will stop business development in Guyana.”
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