Diana McIntyre-Pike Jamaica inducted into Int’l Tourism Hall of Heroes

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Diana McIntyre-Pike was welcomed and selected of one of 17 persons internationally to the International Tourism Hall of Heroes recognizing her wide-ranging expertise and accomplishments in the tourism industry with community tourism. She has been serving her Jamaica community and gave her self-less services to the better of tourism to many parts in the world for over forty-five years

She has given outstanding service to the development and training of communities in entrepreneurship and basic hospitality skills and created the VILLAGES AS BUSINESSES PROGRAMME which is being implemented in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Diana McIntyre-Pike OD, BSc Community Tourism Consultant/Trainer with a BSc degree in Tourism Management, Diplomas in Hotel Management, Tourism, Catering Operations, Marketing and a Certificate in Environmental Management where she studied professionally in Jamaica the UK and Germany. She is President of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Caribbean, Coordinator of the IIPT International Community Tourism Network and President/Founder of the Countrystyle Community Tourism Network.

She has built the Villages as Businesses programme to empower member villages, through tour design, training, management and marketing support, to profit from community tourism, Countrystyle Community Tourism Network has partnered with the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus to provide support for Community Tourism Centres in Jamaica and the Caribbean region and given accreditation to the Community Tourism Hospitality Entrepreneurship 5 day training through the Countrystyle Academy for Community Tourism (ACT) which was recently implemented in Barbados and now resulted in the creation of the Barbados Community Tourism Network.

She has provided Consultant Services in community tourism to several Caribbean countries and Jamaican communities and organizations (including Island Routes)– the main ones being : Dominica, St. Eustatius, Antigua, St. Lucia, Grenada, Anguilla, Barbados, Trinidad, St. Vincent and South Africa. This has resulted in several community tourism networks being established and partners for Countrystyle and the Villages as Businesses programme She has assisted the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in presenting over 40 niche markets in community tourism for 10 Caribbean countries which included mainly ecotourism, cultural heritage tourism, health and wellness tourism and agritourism. She has created the marketing arm for community tourism Lifestyle Experiences in Jamaica and the Caribbean region called Countrystyle Caribbean Vacations and Tours (COCAVAT).

Her over 45 years of pioneering services of Community Tourism internationally have garnered widespread recognition, including Virgin Holidays` Award for Best Overall Personal Contribution to Responsible Tourism (2008), Jamaica’s Order of Distinction (OD) (2009), the National Association of Jamaicans and Supportive Organizations (NAJASO) President’s Distinguished Service Award (2011) and IIPT’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2013). Through the Women’s Bureau of Jamaica, she was one of 50 women receiving the 2012.

International Women’s Day Award. Islands Magazine selected Countrystyle for one of its 2007 Responsible Tourism Awards and featured the Community Experience packages among the world’s top 20 Responsible Tourism offerings. In August 2016 she was given a Community Tourism Activist Award by the African Diaspora Tourism Network Atlanta and inducted into their Hall of Fame. She was appointed as the Pan African Cultural Heritage Tourism Ambassador for the Caribbean by National Cultural Heritage Tourism Centre’s Rev. Dr. Eugene Franklin Florida USA.

She is a co-founder of the African Community Tourism Network together with the Countrystyle Community Tourism Network/Villages as Businesses and the IIPT International Community Tourism Network. She recently received a Global Tourism Award from the Wheatle Peart Branding organization Chicago. She is celebrated 40 years of community tourism in 2018 which was branded community tourism by both Desmond Henry and her in 1978 with Treasure Beach and Mandeville paving the way – the IIPT declared 2018 as it the International Year of Community Tourism and Peace in collaboration with Countystyle/Villages as Businesses and branded Jamaica THE HOME OF COMMUNITY TOURISM which is now joined by the Caribbean.

Co-author: Mrs. The Hon.Diana McIntyre Pike OD. For further information – please contact:  IIPT CARIBBEAN, iiptcaribbean@yahoo.com 876-507-6326