Bermuda Lawmakers Approve New Tourism Authority Plan

Bermuda’s legislators approved a legal framework for the island’s first-ever Tourism Authority on Friday, Sept. 26, following a long debate, according to local press reports.

Bermuda’s Tourism Authority Act will dissolve the island’s existing department of tourism and tourism board in favor of a single agency with “significantly reduced need to seek the approval of the government,” according to a Bermuda Royal Gazette report.

Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell, who led the initiative to create a tourism authority to help reverse the island’s flagging tourism numbers, said Bermuda’s tourism board was limited by “political interference” and instability, noting he was the fourth person to hold the office in as many years. “The authority will be managed independently,” he said. “[It will be] the singular voice that restores Bermuda as a world-class tourist destination.”

A CEO for the organization will be named by Jan. 1, said Crockwell, who under the legislation will select the agency’s leader. Several lawmakers were quoted in the Gazette story questioning the new authority’s independence. But Crockwell said the agency “needs to operate like a corporation without having to seek approval for everything. I don’t anticipate any malfeasance in the tourism authority.”

Source: Travel Pulse, http://www.travelpulse.com/bermuda-lawmakers-approve-new-tourism-authority-plan.html