Barbadian Dr. Jean Holder, has died, aged 85. The distinguished technocrat was well known throughout the region for his pioneering work in tourism and diplomacy.
Holder’s service to his homeland and the wider Caribbean started after graduating from Oxford University in England, and was then recruited into the diplomatic service to represent the newly formed West Indies Federation.
But the illustrious career he had envisaged with the West Indies Federation was not to be as in 1961, Jamaica decided to leave the Federation, followed closely by Trinidad and Tobago.
“The whole thing began to collapse; Jamaica had a referendum in 1961 and decided that she would leave, followed by Trinidad…the seven Eastern Caribbean countries plus Barbados found themselves struggling to survive,” he would later explain.
He said the remaining countries “rescued the situation” by forming the Barbados-based Eastern Caribbean Commission with offices in London and Canada.
Holder, who had been trained in diplomacy, international law and political theory at the University of Toronto in Canada, was posted as the number two in the office in London, and, in addition to looking after matters of trade and the relationship with the British government, was also responsible for the welfare of immigrants to England, including students from the Caribbean.
But while in London, Holder became engaged in the conversations regarding Barbados’ move towards independence in 1966 with the then Prime Minister Errol Barrow giving him the task of keeping Barbadians and other Caribbean countries apprised of the negotiations with the British government.
He returned to Barbados in 1968 to head the Economic and Policy Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where his interest in the region’s tourism sector grew.
He said he was attracted to an advertisement for the creation of a region-wide research and development tourism organization and while admitting that he had no experience in the tourism industry, he remained engaged in the efforts to transform Caribbean tourism from being simply an activity driven by marketing, to being a developmental sector chartered mostly by research statistics and planning.
Dr. Jean Holder used his tenure as executive director of the Caribbean Tourism Research and Development Centre (CTRC), to push for the development of the sector overseeing the amalgamation of the CTRC and the New York-based Caribbean Tourist Association that focused only on the marketing aspect of tourism.
He spent 30 years in regional tourism, and, at the end of his tenure, the Caribbean Tourism Association had become the region’s major marketing tourism and development organization, with a membership of 34 Caribbean states, as well as several national, regional and international private sector travel and tourism agencies and companies.
Holder would later expand his role within the region’s private sector, becoming the chairman of the regional-based carrier, LIAT, whose major shareholders were the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines..
In 2011, he resigned as chairman of the airline after seven years and in 2019, stepped down also as a director of the cash-strapped company.
Holder also contributed significantly to the development of Barbados’ cultural landscape and was chairman of the first National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) committee in 1973.
In a tribute to Holder, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley shared “Barbados and the region will continue to owe this soft-spoken, always confident, forever reassuring son of the Caribbean Sea a debt of gratitude.”
Dr. Jean Holder was awarded Governor General’s Lifetime Award for his contribution to NIFCA.
CMC/
