The Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association (JHTA) yesterday hailed John Pringle for making Jamaica a preferred vacation destination for world celebrities and described him as “a source of strength and inspiration for his colleague Jamaican hoteliers”.

In a statement mourning the death of the pioneer hotelier, the JHTA said that Pringle blazed a trail in international circles that paved the way for many others.

“In 1951, he established a new and special type of resort – the acclaimed Round Hill Hotel – effectively placing Jamaica on the map of preferred destinations of the very rich and famous,” the JHTA said. “Round Hill was the first of the ‘cottage colonies’ which has become the model for many others here and overseas.”

Pringle, Jamaica’s first director of tourism, died at his home in London, England, on Tuesday morning after a three-year battle with Alzheimer’s. He was 81.

The JHTA noted that in addition to his pioneering work in Jamaica’s tourism industry, Pringle was highly successful in tourist real estate as he conceived and developed Rose Hall, Tryall and Pineapple Place in Ocho Rios – Jamaica’s first tourist shopping centre.

“Under his stewardship as Jamaica’s first director of tourism – 1963-1967 – Jamaica’s foreign exchange tourist revenue tripled,” said the JHTA. “As he did for the tourism sector, Mr Pringle served with distinction as the youngest member of the Legislative Council in 1952 and in later years as chairman of JAMCO, the Jamaica External Trade Organisation in Europe, in his capacity as deputy high commissioner for trade in

the UK.”

The tourism umbrella group also praised Pringle for securing a price increase for Jamaican bananas from £70 per metric tonne in 1969 to £540 just over 20 years later, and noted that he was appointed an ambassador special envoy by late prime minister Michael Manley in 1972, and reappointed 17 years later by then prime minister Edward Seaga.

In 1995, Pringle, who was a former Montego Bay Hotel Association president, was recognised for his remarkable services to Jamaica when he was awarded the Order of Jamaica and, on the nomination of the Government of Jamaica, was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and invested by the Queen when she visited Jamaica in 1966.

In 1997, the JHTA awarded Pringle the Abe Issa Award of Excellence, named in honour of the late Abe Issa, himself a pioneer of Jamaica’s tourism industry.

“Thankfully, his legacy remains to guide us, even as we mourn his passing,” the JHTA said.