Diana McIntyre-Pike

We continue to feature some of this year's nominees for National Honours and Awards on Heroes Day. They will receive their honours next month.

After decades of putting a new spin on Jamaica's tourism product, Diana McIntyre-Pike is being rewarded for her dedication.

In July, while at her Astra Country Inn hotel where the office of her Countrystyle Community Tourism programme is based, she received a call from the Office of the Prime Minister. On October 19 she will be among 103 recipients of national awards and will receive an Order of Distinction.

"I am humbly delighted and accepting it on behalf of the many partners in our Countrystyle Community Tourism network as I see this as a further award for the entire programme which will provide further opportunities for funding support to benefit many entrepreneurs in our Countrystyle Village Tourism programme," she told Flair.

Launched in 1979, Diana McIntyre-Pike's concept was born out of her experience as a child. "Growing up in Westmoreland, I observed my mother, Ceceline McIntyre, host local and international visitors in our guest houses. They enjoyed our family life and participated in our community and family events while on vacation. This is where it all began and then when I was trained professionally in Europe in hotel management and tourism, I noted that visitors enjoyed whatever the community offered." McIntyre-Pike returned to Jamaica and decided to organise a Jamaica chit-chat session in 1973 at the Holiday Inn, where guests were given a two-hour educational session on all aspects of Jamaican lifestyle with the assistance of selected community persons who invited these guests to their homes.

Awards and honours

She was appointed the co-ordinator and president of the first community tourism chapter outside of the United States of America.

Her many awards and honours over the years have motivated her to continue the work of developing tourism in Jamaica.

McIntyre-Pike's greatest desire is: "To get the governments of Jamaica and the Caribbean to endorse community tourism as the way forward - their economic and sustainable development as community tourism is community development."