Gerard Blitz; Club Med Founder

Gerard Blitz, 78, founder of the Club Mediterranean empire of vacation villages advertised as an “antidote to civilization.” A Belgian-born diamond-cutter by trade, Blitz created Club Med in 1950 as a nonprofit association and led the first group of vacationers to a tent village in Spain’s Balearic Islands. Club Med villages progressed from tents to straw huts to modern hotel facilities, prospering with a formula of prepaid, no-tipping vacations in which clients pay with colored beads for extras such as souvenirs or bar drinks. With its image of sun, sand and relaxation, Club Med grew into one of the world’s largest tourism groups, with more than 87,000 beds in its resorts. In Paris on Saturday of undisclosed causes.