The first thing you discern about the Gouveia siblings, Gerry (Jnr) and Kevin, is the consummate ease with which they handle questions about their vision for Roraima Airways Inc, the company which was created ‘from scratch’ by their father, Captain Gerry Gouveia, which, he says, will inevitably pass into the hands of his two sons.
That time may not have come as yet but last Wednesday was the first time that the Chief Executive Officer had ever been confined to the sidelines while this newspaper was conducting an interview that had to do with Roraima Airways.
Gerry (Jnr) is a thoughtful and articulate young man, a qualified pilot and knowledgeable in security matters. His leadership qualities are reflected in the assertiveness with which he responds to questions. Kevin too is a trained pilot – as are both their father and mother – though he makes no secret of his greater interest in lending his culinary skills to the company.
Since returning to Guyana from Canada much of his time has been spent infusing his skills and experience into continually upgrading what comes out of the Roraima Duke Lodge’s kitchen. His offerings about food and food service are blunt but eminently fair comment on standards in the service industry. His overall assessment is that if we are to build a world class tourist industry our service standards still have a challenging road to travel. On Wednesday the siblings and their mother were preoccupied with finalizing the arrangements for the staging of Roraima’s Eighth Wedding Expo, an event which Gerry (Jnr) says has become “a staple” for the company. Its value, he says, reposes not so much in its commercial viability as in the contribution that it continues to make with building those enterprises that comprise the wedding sector.
Debbie Gouveia, who shares the responsibility for running Roraima Airways with her husband prefers to see the Wedding Expo as an incubator for start-up companies. “Every year at least 50 per cent of the participants in the Wedding Expo are newcomers,” she says. She believes it says something about the role that the Wedding Expo has played in kick-starting businesses, providing stable ground that allows them to stand on their own two feet.
Gerry (Jnr) sees the Wedding Expo as a symbol of his father’s determination to infuse a generous measure of corporate social responsibility into the Roraima business culture. It is not just the fact that the event provides a platform for vendors many of whom have an otherwise limited stage on which to parade their goods and services; the Wedding Expo has allowed for lucrative collaboration among small businesses offering complimentary services. A few lucky participants in the Wedding Expo have even secured employment with Roraima Airways.
Built over time through incremental add-ons by the senior Gouveias, the Wedding Expo, Gerry (Jnr) says has now branded the company as “a seasonal veteran of the expo industry.” Through the Wedding Expo, he says, Roraima has become a catalyst for the creation of new businesses and for the enhanced marketing exposure of older ones. “In the same way that there is GuyExpo and Housing Expo there is Wedding Expo,” he says. “What we are really proud of is the range of businesses in the industry that the Wedding Expo brings together.”
Kevin returns the discourse to the theme of the food and beverage sector and its role in building a robust tourism industry. His knowledge of the role that cuisine plays in enabling countries to build an impressive tourism profile is impressive and he believes that his own inputs have significantly raised the culinary standards at the Duke Lodge. Soon, he says, he will be focusing enhancing the services at the Duke Lodge’s sister facility, the Roraima Residency Inn in Bel Air Park.
Over the coming weekend, however, the company’s focus will be on the Wedding Expo. On Wednesday the Duke Lodge was a hive of activity with various planning meetings taking place simultaneously with gatherings of vendors aiming the finalize arrangements for the setting up of their booths.
The growth in popularity of the event over the past seven years is manifested in the fact that booth space is now at a premium. Around 40 booths have been set up. Unsurprisingly, most of them have long been taken. The Gouveias say that if previous events are anything to go by, would-be vendors are likely to be knocking on the company’s doors on the eve of the commencement of the event. By the time the opening ceremony is done and dusted the Duke Lodge will erupt into a splendid riot of culture and confusion. Vending, Jerry (Jnr) says, will include persons offering their services from tables and even people walking the premises distributing cards and leaflets.
