Bermuda Tourism Authority Financial Statements

August 18, 2015

The Bermuda Tourism Authority released their financial statements and also information on their staff salaries and bonus payments.

In a letter accompanying the release, BTA CEO Bill Hanbury said, “As we move into 2015, the entire team is focused on three primary objectives, all of them growth oriented: increasing air arrivals, increasing visitor spending into the local economy and increasing room nights in hotels and vacation rentals.

“We trust our new marketing strategy will help us grow leisure air arrivals and room nights, while visitor spending will go up as we improve our arsenal of unique, authentic on-island experiences and culinary offerings.

“During 2014 the public sector workforce was at capacity and the international business sector was consolidating, making it clear that tourism is the country’s best and fastest route to new jobs.”

“Some countries export cars and build ships; some countries send agricultural products to the four corners of the world; some countries have technology used by millions of global consumers; some countries possess vast natural resources like coal, oil and iron. Bermuda has none of these products.

“Our product is a high quality experience, a tourism experience that visitors can carry with them when they return home. That’s our number one export – beautiful, authentic and memorable experiences. Together we must focus on our number one export if we intend to turn the tide for Bermuda’s economy.”

The BTA release on salary information said that the “total incentives for 2014 were $412K representing 14% of payroll and 69% of budgeted incentive.”

It also stated, as Bernews reported last month, that BTA CEO Bill Hanbury received $458,500 in compensation for the first year, with $88,000 of that being a bonus.

Addressing the incentive range, the release said the Chiefs [Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Product and Experience Development Officer, Chief Investment Officer etc.] had a “performance incentive payment range” of $31,000 – $88,000; while Directors [Director of Finance, Director of Marketing, Director of Research and Business Intelligence etc] had ranges of $14,000 – $16,000.

Managers [Sports and Development Manager, Culture and Leisure Events Manager, Creative Services Manager] had a “performance incentive payment range” of $8, 000 – $10,000; while administration staff [Front Line Ambassador, Executive Assistant, External Relations Coordinator, Customer Service Representative, Special Projects Intern] had incentive payments ranging from $1,000 – $9,000.

The full Bermuda Tourism Authority Financial Statements follow below [PDF here]:

Full Positions and Salary Range – Year ending 2014 follow below [PDF here]:

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Comments (24)

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  1. Onion juice says:

    Now lets hear the U.B.P cheerleaders defend this Bull S!@#.
    So SpongeBob, what happened to We are BROKE, You just dont get it and Money dont grow on trees.
    And those of us who do an honest days work are trying to survive off $500-$800 a week !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Casual Observer says:

      So people who get paid more than you aren’t doing an honest days work?

      And the amount that you post on here I doubt you do much of a days work.

      • sage says:

        So you don’t like people insinuating higher paid workers don’t work, but your reaction is to stereotype low wage earners. We have no minimum wage whilst at the BTA, the sky’s the limit!

        • Casual Observer says:

          Huh?

          How did my comment stereo type anyone?

          I doubted the poster’s work load as he/she is continually posting on this site.

          Where did I say anything about low wage earners or stereo type them?

          You’re reaching and you know it.

          Oh and I’m on a staycation before you try to say something about me posting here today.

    • Kiskadee says:

      It is disgraceful what this man is earning . We will never get out of debt at this rate

  2. Half a Million says:

    A half million in bonuses and the lowest arrivals figures in recent times. And the government wants to take money out of my salary?

    • Not exactly says:

      I don’t disagree that they are being paid a lot, however Government did take from the BTA budget as well. I would say that the money is actually being used far more effectively than it ever was under BDOT. In spite of arrivals being down total spending is up which is the best news of all.

    • Casual Observer says:

      It can be easily argued that salaries are paid from the annual dues paid by the hoteliers. The government grant is the lowest it has been in years.

      The BTA fees amount to $3.4mn while all salaries/benefits (I.e. Insurance, pension, bonus etc.) equate to $4mn or just 20% of total expenditure.

      Total civil service salary/benefit costs were $595mm which is 47% of total expenses and 67% of total revenues.

      Either way you look at it those numbers are completely unsustainable. We are essentially borrowing $200mn a year just to pay operating costs.

      • SMH says:

        ..and no one in the BTA gets 14 weeks sick leave and a defined benefit pension plan. Another spoiled and entitled civil servant needing a reality check. BTW what do you think Chris Furbert make? What about the PS? Include in their benefits? Hanbury pales in comparison

      • just the facts says:

        Actually, you’re referring to the 2.5% fee collected by the hotels from visitors and paid directly to the BTA. So, the people they are getting here are paying much of their salaries!

  3. just the facts says:

    Despite all the ‘spin’ around this, the incentive pay is not ‘a bonus’ on top of salary. It’s the foundation of BTA’s compensation plan, put in place before even Hanbury was hired. Just because this approach is unheard of in the public sector (where you get paid just for showing up)doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

    • sage says:

      Oh ok, so they themselves refer to it as a bonus just for the fun of it.

  4. just the facts says:

    If you read the annual report, you’ll see BTA’s total compensation is only 18%, less than 1/5th of it’s entire budget. (Which is the smallest ever for tourism!). Best practice calls for 25-30%, so they are doing a good job with these costs. Better than the BMA whose salaries are 75-82% of their entire budget! Guess the photo-op with CEO Cox, with his closer to a million dollar salary ($500k salary PLUS 30% bonus) is fine?

    • SMH says:

      Oh, that’s different

    • Johnny says:

      Just the Facts – stop twisting the facts. The BTA has a much smaller workforce than the Dept. of Tourism while maintaining a similar budget. If you divide the budget by the number of BTA workers you will find that they will have the highest amount of money per employee, than any other govt. department.

  5. serengeti says:

    Wow, audited financial statements. Look how we take that for granted these days.

  6. clearasmud says:

    No reasonable person can defend these bonus payments without knowing what they are for. What is the criteria used to make payouts? To date the BTA has not accomplished much at all so what exactly is the bonuses for?

  7. ABS says:

    As an OBA supporter even I would agree this is outrageous. Results orientated, performance bonus, high salaries. Sorry if that were my old job I would owe them money. To much for no tangible results and piss poor performance, from top to bottom. And what is cured vacation 60K. Many of them go on so called work related jaunts all the time. And I guess they accrue mileage as well.

  8. Coffee says:

    Seriously !

    Are they still hiring ?

  9. mike says:

    Formation of the BTA solved nothing.

    • Onion Juice says:

      They formed the fish sandwich contest.

    • Proud to be Bermudian says:

      Not yet…give it some time. They have only been in operation for a little over a year. Tourism was or maybe still is in a dire funk…going to take some time don’t you think?

  10. Jurist says:

    Jeremy Cox gets a huge wage and the BMA lost an average of over $1,000,000 per yr, the last 2 yrs. Where is the outcry on that?

  11. Forethebest says:

    Incentive bonuses are an efficient method of compensation in for-profit institutions. Not-for-profit does not necessarily mean that nobody makes money, but in not-for-profit institutions there is no place for bonus payments when the executive management spends capital without realizing a measurably greater return on investment. This return can be in the form of funding and/or in the form of meeting and surpassing the goals of the institution. In the case at hand there is no justification for paying a bonus.

    Good work if you can get it!