Bill Hanbury has disclosed his salary package to prevent it from continuing to detract from the positive work of the Bermuda Tourism Authority.

By revealing that he earns $295,000 per year and receives a $75,000 annual housing allowance, the BTA chief executive officer said he hoped that he and his team would be left to focus on rejuvenating the tourism industry and creating jobs for Bermudians.

The CEO’s salary was not made public when he was appointed in January 2014, which prompted Opposition criticism and condemnation in the House of Assembly from MP Wayne Furbert, who said: “Not only salary, does he get free housing? Does he get travel? Is it first class, business or economy? Does he get a phone? Does he get a car? I do not know. But the board should have a responsibility to tell me.”

But Mr Hanbury branded the continuing clamour around his salary as a “huge distraction” from the job that he and the BTA had been tasked with.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette, Mr Hanbury also revealed the salary range of his four-strong senior team as further evidence of a desire to provide transparency and accountability.

Mr Hanbury said he had previously been prevented from releasing his salary under a confidential agreement with the BTA board, but had approached the board to ask for permission to release the figure.

“I had nothing to do with the salary level,” he said. “It was decided by the search consultant and the board of directors.

“I am qualified to do the job and I am being paid commensurate with my experience and qualifications, and I am not apologising for that. I do not have time for this continuing conversation about my salary; I am totally focused on creating jobs for Bermudians.

“I want to take the air out of the balloon so that the conversation is not around my salary, but about the national crisis we face and the need to create jobs.”

Asked why he had not released his salary figure before, Mr Hanbury said: “I had a confidentiality agreement with the board that prevented me from releasing the figure and I did not want to breach that agreement. That was not my idea, but I honoured their wishes.

“I have gone to the board now to get their approval to break that agreement because my salary has become a distraction.

“We have to stop politicising the tourism marketing. This one organisation has the opportunity to create jobs. People should stop thinking about all the other atmospheric interference and think about the BTA and the jobs it can create.

“I am not asking people to blindly support us. We believe we have a solution, give us a chance to fix it instead of speaking all the time on the other ancillary issues.”

Mr Hanbury revealed that the BTA’s senior executive team of Pat Phillip-Fairn, Karla Lacey, Victoria Isley and Roland Andy Burrows received annual salaries of between $175,000 and $275,000.

The CEO, together with Ms Phillip-Fairn, the chief product and experiences officer, Ms Lacey, the chief operations officer, Mr Burrows, the chief investments officer and Ms Isley, the chief sales and marketing officer, all have the potential to earn a 30 per cent bonus based on “strict performance parameters”.

Mr Hanbury said: “We want to be accountable and transparent about what we are doing; and there is a huge national interest in us improving the tourism economy. In many respects, we are the only option in the immediate future.

“As we go off into 2015, I don’t want there to be a big cloud over the CEO’s salary. It should not be an issue; we have much bigger issues.

“But I want to clear the air so we can get to the real issues — the national crisis around jobs. The BTA is part of that solution.

“I don’t want it to be politicised. Everyone needs to buy into this whether they like my salary or not; we are trying to solve a serious problem.”

Mr Hanbury’s salary was set by one of the world’s most pre-eminent recruitment firms, Korn Ferry, which based the figure on what was commensurate with what other executives in the job received.

According to US tax forms posted on the website of his previous employer, the United Way of the National Capital Area, Mr Hanbury made more than $358,000 in direct compensation, in addition to another $58,000, which is listed as the “estimated amount of other compensation from the organisation and related organisations”.

The same data reveals that for 2012, Mr Hanbury received $392,128 in reportable compensation and $60,849 in “other compensation”.

Mr Hanbury said: “My salary now is in the middle of the road for destination marketing organisations relative to other CEOs.

“The annual survey conducted by the Destination Marketing Association International shows that 58 per cent of CEOs earn more than me, while 42 per cent earn less. If I don’t perform, I am not going to be here. It is as simple as that.

“We own 2015 and have set aggressive objectives. I have to perform or I will not be here. We have not been at this long enough yet to reverse the decline for 30 years.

“The complexity and depth of the problem was significantly more than I thought it was. I’m not discouraged by the scope of the problem, but I am more practical now that, in fact, the solutions are complex.”