Interview on Nationwide News Network Radio with Diana
Marguerite Diana McIntyre-Pike, President/Founder, Countrystyle Community Tourism Network/Villages as Businesses and President of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Caribbean.
Diana McIntyre-Pike OD, BSc is an hotelier, entrepreneur, tourism consultant and trainer, internationally recognized as the pioneer of Community Tourism. Educated in England, Germany and Jamaica in Hotel, Tourism and Environmental Management, she has 44 years’
experience and has held numerous posts in the tourism industry. She was a Director of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association and Chairman of their Small Hotels Committee for eight years and created the Small Hotels Retreat, an event which was very successful for many
years. She also owned and operated a small hotel in Jamaica for over 35 years where she pioneered the Countrystyle Community Tourism organization.
She is President/Founder of the Countrystyle Community Tourism Network and has built the Villages as Businesses programme to empower member villages, through tour design, training, management and marketing support, to profit from community tourism. The resulting Community Experience tours are marketed to international tour companies through Countrystyle Caribbean Vacations and Tours (COCAVAT), founded in partnership with Caribic/Olympia Tours. She created the Academy for Community Tourism (ACT), with Etalon
Global Solutions (EGS), a Pearson EDEXCEL Training and Certification Centre, to expand Countrystyle’s community tourism courses and offer internationally-recognized certification.
Her services to Community Tourism 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 2008 Responsible Tourism Awards and featured the Community Experience packages among the world’s top 20 Responsible Tourism offerings.
Mrs. McIntyre-Pike is gaining increasing international respect for Jamaica’s pioneering community tourism. She is Caribbean President of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Caribbean and co-ordinates IIPT’s International Community Tourism Network in over 70 countries. She has worked across the Caribbean to build community tourism and, as an invited community tourism expert, has presented at UNESCO, OAS, OECS and IIPT international meetings in Switzerland, South Africa, Barbados and ten other Caribbean states.