In hospitality circles, it’s generally agreed that Heinz Simonitsch—the athletic, determined, and efficient Austrian hotelier who managed Jamaica’s Half Moon resort for 39 years—almost single-handedly put the Caribbean nation on the map as a first-class, high-end tourist destination. He took over Half Moon in 1963, and over the next four decades (he retired in 2002), he built up the resort from an in-the-red, 81-room hotel to a sprawling, successful, world-renowned resort on more than 400 acres.

March/April 2011