The Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) has pledged to publicise a broad range of data on the Island’s tourism performance.

Information will include hotel revenues, according to the organisation’s new chief executive officer Bill Hanbury, who said the group was committed to sharing details “on a timely basis”.

At a press conference yesterday, Mr Hanbury voiced cautious optimism at some improvements shown by the latest figures for last year.

These include a six percent increase in air arrivals for the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with the fourth quarter of 2012.

Total hotel room bookings are also up five percent for the next six months compared with last year and the number of room nights booked during December increased 10 percent on December, 2012.

However, cruise arrivals were down ten percent in 2013 compared with 2012, and total hotel bookings for 2013 were “relatively flat” — up one percent overall.

Mr Hanbury said the BTA was committed to providing “up-to-date and extensive information”, while using the data to better market the Island.

He described the authority as a “marketing and sales operation, not a bureaucracy”.

Erin Smith, director of research and business intelligence, said the BTA was building “a comparative data bank that will allow us to understand the industry in detail and to respond accordingly”.

“This will allow us to realise the objectives of the National Tourism Plan in building a unique and competitive positioning, improving quality throughout the tourism value chain, and attracting business development and investment.

“The information we will be releasing will thus be broader than historic data released and we’re very excited about it.”

Asked what she found most encouraging in the data, Ms Smith said: “For me, it’s the dollar value. Instead of just volume, we can see how much is actually being put into the economy.”

The figures released include statistics on hotel earnings, as measured by the US company Smith’s Travel Research (STR).

Average daily rate, or ADR, represents the average rental income per occupied room. Bermuda’s ADR for the year 2013 was five percent higher than 2012.

Ms Smith explained: “ADR is basically what you’re paying for a room. If you look up a hotel on Expedia and it’s $299 a night, that’s essentially it. With the ADR, hotels are looking at the average they’re getting per room for that month.”

Also measured is revenue per available room, or RevPAR — the figure obtained by dividing the room revenue by the number of rooms available — which STR’s website defined as “the total guest room revenue divided by the total number of available rooms”.

The STR site added: “RevPAR differs from average daily rate (ADR) because RevPAR is affected by the amount of unoccupied available rooms, while ADR shows only the average rate of rooms actually sold.”

In Bermuda’s case, RevPAR for 2013 rose by 6.5 percent over 2012.

“This figure gives you a better gauge, because it combines ADR with occupancy,” said Ms Smith. “You could raise your rate but hurt your occupancy, so really the one to look at is the RevPAR. It tells the whole story.”

A RevPAR of 6.5 percent was “good”, she said.

“But it’s not back to where it needs to be. If we look back to 2008, our most successful year in recent history, we’re still not back to that. But a rise is encouraging.”

Mr Hanbury stressed that while some figures showed improvements in tourism, the Island’s industry was “still not where we need to be, by any stretch of the imagination”.

He said the announcement of the figures “really manifests our commitment to provide more up-to-date data”.

However, with global tourism estimated to grow by 5.5 percent in 2014, “we as a destination need to keep up with that”.

Asked if the authority had any plans to replace the ‘So Much More’ slogan, Mr Hanbury said: “I don’t think the challenge for us is in the brand; the challenge is how we execute our marketing strategy.”

The BTA would not change Bermuda’s current brand without “a lot of thought and contemplation”, he said.

“Our effort will be around delivering it better to the marketplace.”

Mr Hanbury cautioned that his remarks were “not in any way criticising past regimes”.

However, he added: “But there has to be a more aggressive and sophisticated effort than in the past.

“There are fundamental things we’re going to do from a marketing perspective that will help to improve the situation immediately.”

He said the BTA was placing a particular emphasis on “digital and social media”.

Shadow Minister Wayne Furbert yesterday responded: “We did have a social media campaign and it has grown significantly over the years. Can more be done? Yes.”

Mr Furbert said the Opposition would support the BTA — but maintained the improvement shown for 2013 represented “work done by the Ministry over the years that is now bearing fruit”.

“Mr Hanbury has my full support to get Bermuda back in the right place,” Mr Furbert said. “But I still believe I would have put a Bermudian in his place and used him as a consultant.”

The Shadow Minister added that he had no particular candidate in mind for the job.

“I still believe there is a Bermudian out there who could do the job,” he said.