Diana McIntyre-Pike, Countrystyle Community Tourism Network, Jamaica
Countrystyle Community Tourism Network/Villages as Businesses and International Institute for Peace through Tourism 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. 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.
Her over 44 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. Also the IIPT Championship Business Resilience Award in London November 2019 – 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.
My role is to guide the process of empowering communities to participate in tourism through our community tourism Villages as Businesses programme. Training services in basic hospitality skills and community entrepreneurship which includes environmental management, organic farming, techology, health and wellness etc I also can assist in preparing persons for small hotel management and homestays where they can offer the community lifestyle experience with their marketing of their properties to get more business
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