Tourism Authority Announce Five New Hires
Hazel Clark, Nadia Hall, Kristin McSweeney, Rohan Shastri, and Keisha Webb have all joined the Bermuda Tourism Authority, the BTA announced today.
The BTA said, “Five of the six new roles created at the Bermuda Tourism Authority as part of a budget neutral restructuring plan that began in January are now filled.
“The changes were designed to make the organisation more responsive to market trends and better positioned to improve its return on investment for Bermuda.
“To accomplish these goals three specific strategies are underway: Facilitate further growth in sports tourism; Shift toward market intelligence-driven sales, and strengthen content creation
“As part of the implementation of this plan, the Bermuda Tourism Authority is pleased to announce the following new or recent members of the team:
Hazel Clark, Nadia Hall, Kristin McSweeney, Rohan Shastri, and Keisha Webb
“Three-time Olympian Hazel Clark joins the Bermuda Tourism Authority on July 23rd as its first Director of Sports Business Development. As part of the sales and marketing team, Ms. Clark will devise and execute strategies for the growth of sports tourism in Bermuda, including sporting events and sports training opportunities.
“She brings a wealth of international experience to the role, not only as a professional track and field athlete, but also as a former U.S. Sports Envoy, Executive Director of the Georgia Track Club, Coca-Cola Global Sports Marketing Associate, and as former Director of the Georgia Meet of Champions [GMOC].
“Nadia Hall began with the Bermuda Tourism Authority as a Content Specialist in May to assist with developing articles, printed collateral, and content for the social media channels that are managed by the sales and marketing team on a daily basis. She most recently worked at The Royal Gazette as an accomplished news and lifestyles reporter. She has extensive experience with photography and videography.
“Kristin McSweeney joined the Bermuda Tourism Authority in April as Business Analyst & CRM Specialist. This research and business intelligence role requires a unique set of skills in data management and the Bermuda Tourism Authority was fortunate to find a local candidate who most recently worked with Salesforce in the United States.
“Since April, Kristin has been overseeing the quality and consistency of data used to drive the organisation’s sales and marketing efforts and will help to improve the overall return on investment.
“Rohan Shastri is also now a Content Specialist for the Bermuda Tourism Authority, but focused on photo and video content, which is key to driving engagement with Bermuda’s target audiences. He started last month. Rohan is a skilled videographer and photographer having started his own Bermuda production company in 2011 and working most recently as museums manager for the Bermuda National Trust.
“Keisha Webb has joined the Bermuda Tourism Authority’s product and experiences team as Destination Services Manager. The objective of this role is to enhance the experience of groups visiting the island because their volume of visitors and spending power are critical to the success of the local tourism industry.
“Ms. Webb works with groups in a variety of ways, including assistance with government policies and the coordination of on-island vendors. Keisha started in April having formerly worked at Rosewood Bermuda, Gibbons Company and Clarien Bank.
“Three of the five new hires are Bermudians and the remaining two are spouses of Bermudians,” the BTA added.
Earlier this year, the BTA confirmed that four job positions were being eliminated, and six new positions were being created, with the BTA saying the “reorganisation is about modernising the structure of the Bermuda Tourism Authority for the first time since its inception in 2014.”
At that time, the BTA said the four job positions that are being eliminated consisted of three staff positions and one contracted position, while “six new roles were created,” and when asked if this will create a change in expenses, the BTA said no, the changes are “budget neutral.”
Bermuda Tourism Authority CEO Kevin Dallas said: “I hope all tourism industry stakeholders will join us in warmly welcoming these talented professionals into the Bermuda Tourism Authority. They are a critical part of our ambitious plans to continue what is now the third consecutive year of growth for Bermuda’s tourism industry.”
An organisational chart [PDF] is available on the Bermuda Tourism Authority website.
Well I hope to God that this means a return to maximum visitors by air because just bringing cruise ships in is not helping our business!!!
All these highly paid people are necessary when we have a multi million $ contract with consultants?!?!?
It’s how they make money
With these new high paid people and the consultants BTA should be putting more effort into self-funding.
What a farce, declining results muddied by smoke and mirrors, more pubic money being thrown at an underperforming Department, tourists don’t come to Bermuda just because it’s there anymore, there needs to be incentives, and hotel rooms that cost less than $500 a night! Typical spin by the current Government
Declining results?? Clearly you are not very familiar with the tourism industry in Bermuda.
Air arrivals UP.
Hotel occupancy UP.
Cruise travelers (don’t knock them….. many people with a few $’s is better than Zero people with Zero dollars!!)
*** I agree it is a shame we don’t get smaller high end ships into Hamilton and St. Georges. We’ve lost Veendam for next year (That boat is the Biggest impact per passenger in the Bermuda economy than any other). Hopefully BTA can lure more high end boats where the cruise line focus Bermuda as the destination.
But smoke and mirrors….. Nope. BTA is doing an incredible job
Everything is up but vacation rentals need to be taxed to ‘even the field’ yet enjoy no concessions? Are you a ‘content specialist’ a ‘destination services manager’ or ‘BS artist’?
Dallas uses the word ‘growth’ within the context of the BTA’s time in charge which is very misleading. Their first year was pathetic and because their third year was less pathetic it’s referred to as ‘growth’?
What we have here is a group of grossly over paid under performing people who have hired more grossly over paid people at the tax payers expense who more than likely will also be under performing.
Unfortunately this comment is very true.
Hard to disagree with you there. Mr. Dallas is all about spin while enjoying his hefty salary.
Marshall.
You may not be familiar with the Bermuda tourism product. But #’s are going up nicely since BTA was established. Hotels and businesses in the tourism sector are benefiting….. Thus – hiring more Bermudians rather than lay offs and closing of business which we saw Pre-BTA.
And it is obvious you are not familiar with the importance of actually reading a story, and a responding post, before commenting.
“What we have here is a group of grossly over paid under performing people who have hired more grossly over paid people at the tax payers expense who more than likely will also be under performing.”
That comment can be applied to whole civil service.
Well said!
Princess hotels have been 98%+ capacity for weeks!! They weren’t in 2012-2013 before BTA got going……. 5 years of hard and tireless work and Bermuda is relevant again in the tourism world……..
BTA takes so much crap as a political football getting booted about…… No one says thanks for all the great work they are doing. But keep it up!
If you look closer I believe you will find It is the additions, changes and renovations with direct marketing by the Princess is responsible for a major portion of their increase in guest numbers. The Green Family wasn’t waiting for BTA or any other group to get the message out.
Why do we not have a few 5 star properties here ? We have 5 star prices !
5 night is free, that sort of thing ! We are selling service!
What happened to the hotel college ?
The doors of a functioning hotel never closes !
A holelier is an honerable profession !
We are living in a changing world where people can become qualified or certificated in many vocations, administration, entertainment elecrtical repair ,plumbing repair . reservations and so on the job oppertunities list is endless.
We need some enthusisasm here Mr. D you got 30 days to make it happen.
You can not a make a million sitting on your thumbs.
How about another East coast show and tell ! $40,000 . would just about do it.
The BTA never ceases to amaze me. I think they are in the recruitment business as opposed to the Tourism business. It would appear all they do is hire personnel. Where is all of this funding coming from? As if we don’t know, taxpayer funds. I had great hopes for Kevin Dallas and he has blurred into oblivion. One outspoken remark on the LBTQ and he was silenced. Is there any accountability from this group? What exactly do they do because it sure takes lots of highly paid personnel to do it? They should be on the cutting edge of the tourism business feeding back facts, figures innovative and ideas to the local community, instead of their laid back, unconcerned approach to the revitalization of the tourism product.
Hi Acegurl -
I may be many things, but silent isn’t one of them! If you have a look at the BTA corporate website you’ll find just about every fact and figure you’d ever want to know. You’ll also find the quarterly and annual activity report where we lay out specifically what we’re working on and the results (or in some cases failures) we’re seeing in full transparency for the Bermudian public.
Have a read of the most recent reports, and if you still don’t think that a an appropriate urgency and bias to action is clear, I’d be very happy to talk to you about it.
Best,
Kevin