Essequibo hotelier pressing for tourism boost to salvage hospitality sector
When Stabroek Business met with 85-year-old Bernard ‘Bonnie’ Young at Henrietta on the Essequibo Coast last weekend he was ‘chilling’ in his fifth floor apartment at the Arabian Atlantic Hotel looking out into the ocean from which it borrowed its name. It appeared to be a fitting pastime for a man in his advanced years, who had spent more than six decades as one of Essequibo’s leading entrepreneurs in the hotel industry.
Young concedes that the influence of habit has meant that he finds it difficult to formally retire. He is fortunate to be blessed with both the physical and mental resources to persist in what, over time, has become the habit of being an hotelier.
His years in business afford ‘Bonnie’ the privilege of reflecting on what he considers to be some of his entrepreneurial landmarks - like the fact that he was the first businessman on the Essequibo coast to receive power from the then Guyana Electricity Corporation. In his time, he was also the first businessman to establish a hotel disco in the Cinderella County, the Arabian Hotel, Disco and Restaurant.
These days, three to four days a week, ‘Bonnie’ Young descends the 55 stairs from his apartment to reconnect with the operations of his hotel. He has long passed the daily grind of managing the 45-room hotel to an assortment of supervisors. These days, he says, it is a matter of “keeping tabs on things.”
Prior to his entry into the hospitality industry in 1980, ‘Bonnie’ had established the Queen’s Park shopping facility, providing groceries and haberdashery. Customers could also rely on Queen’s Park to offer Brown Betty Ice Cream and pasteurized milk purchased in Georgetown. In those days, he says, his establishment was powered by four generators.
He recalls that the breakthrough in electricity supply on the Essequibo Coast came after a vigorous lobby in 1959 by businessmen from the community. He still believes that what finally broke the back of the power company’s resistance was its discovery of the extent of demand for electricity, arising out of the number of wellestablished business houses located there.
In the absence of a thriving tourism industry and with only limited visits to the Essequibo Coast from elsewhere across the country, the hotel industry on the coast is not in “great shape.” At best, ‘Bonnie’ says, the Arabian Atlantic is keeping its head above water. There are times when the occupancy rate hovers around 15 per cent. “Sometimes, for days, we are empty,” he says. He regards a 20 per cent occupancy rate as “workable.”
Essequibo Nights are a decided windfall. For two nights, at least, the Arabian Atlantic can anticipate a full house. Outside of this brief period, patronage depends on occupancy by government employees travelling to the coast on official business or visitors from Georgetown, Bartica, Linden and Berbice and a few passing through from the Pomeroon on their way to Georgetown. Overseas visitors are “few and far between,” he says.
‘Bonnie’ holds the view that the fortunes of the hospitality business on the Essequibo Coast are intertwined with those of the broader tourism sector. He believes that there is still far too little in the way of visitor attractions. “We have one or two resorts but nothing else,” he says. What adds to the pressure on the hotel sector is the fact that an increasing number of hotels (about a dozen these days) have sprung up along the Essequibo Coast.
What keeps the Arabian Atlantic going is the fact that even at 85, its proprietor says, he has not lost his competitive spirit. “I still have the urge to be the live wire on the Essequibo coast,” he says. Advancing