Just on the eve of Anguilla winning the enviable title of “Best Island in the Caribbean”, for the third time in July 2019, Mrs. Marie Walker, the island’s Marketing Director in New York, passed away. She was one of Anguilla’s major tourism promoters and up to her passing she was preparing a publicity trip to the island.
The memory of the late Jamaican-born tourism agent is still alive in Anguilla. Last week, the Jamaica Cultural Association in Anguilla paid tribute to her during its observance of Jamaica Day with a series of activities. One of the events was to recall the work of Mrs. Walker and to honour her with the presentation of a plaque to the Ministry of Tourism and the Anguilla Tourist Board. The presentation, organised by Ms. Patricia Bygrave, a Jamaican national residing in Anguilla – and Anguillian, Mr. Andrew Niles – was made on Thursday, October 22, at the Tourist Board’s Conference Room.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Niles said: “We had promised and indicated at the Jamaica National Heroes’ Day Programme on Sunday, October 18, that we would do this presentation to the Anguilla Tourist Board on behalf of someone we felt was a pioneer and a stalwart for Anguilla’s tourism industry – Marie Walker. It was under Marie’s leadership that Anguilla opened its first tourist office in White Plains, New York, on June 8, 2004, until its closure in 2012. Anguilla stood tall. During that time Marie employed four Anguillians to work in that New York office – at different times but on a continuous basis. She was a mentor and guide to young Anguillians and, as she did, with all the others who worked with her, she provided support and encouragement.
“Marie, the ‘Jamanguillian’, as she was sometimes referred to, had an amazing passion, commitment, loyalty and love for Anguilla and its people. She gave of herself and her finances to promote tourism for Anguilla, and she made sure that she personally contributed to the tourist arrival figures by bringing down her birthday parties to Anguilla every November. She was having fun but she was also doing some business.
“Her dreams for Anguilla were big. The programmes and plans she submitted were tall… Marie made it happen. As Jamaicans say: ‘good friends are better than pocket money’. She was not afraid to leverage some of her relationships to benefit Anguilla, and she was never afraid to ask a question because, as she said, ‘they either say yes or no’…But no was hardly a word she understood or kept in her vocabulary. She felt there was always a way to get things done. It ran her into discomfort at times, but she was determined.”
Mr. Niles added: “Marie literally and figuratively gave her life for Anguilla up to the very end, on her bed of affliction, still making plans for a family visit to Anguilla and preparing for presentation for the next marketing meeting. It is with great pleasure that the Jamaica Cultural Association makes this presentation to the Anguilla Tourist Board on behalf of our stalwart, Marie Walker. We honour her in memory for her ambassadorial role as a ‘Jamanguillian’ in the tourism sector.”
