Today the Bermuda Tourism Authority welcomes a new chief executive officer. And as the organisation’s board chairman, I’m proud to report the leadership transition has gone very smoothly. The BTA is well positioned to continue its momentum of success.

Since hiring Bill Hanbury three years ago, he has helped to build a core mission and led a team that has completed many important goals and objectives, including:

• To create from scratch a high-quality, high-performance organisation focused on its mission to grow tourism while meeting world-class standards for destination marketing

• To oversee a new brand identity for Bermuda and end the years-long decline in visitor arrivals

• To improve our on-island product and usher in a wealth of visitor experiences that are about culture, adventure and sport, which will bring along young Bermudian entrepreneurs and attract younger travellers.

That’s just a shortlist of a great leader’s positive impact on our country in only 36 months. The true impact is immeasurable. We’ll still be evaluating its worth ten years from now. The BTA Board, the tourism industry and all of Bermuda owe Bill a huge debt of gratitude.

It’s also critically important that, as he steps down, a Bermudian, Kevin Dallas, is stepping up. Kevin will carry the baton next and I have no doubt he is up to the challenge. He comes to the position with considerable knowledge and experience that is well-suited to the CEO position at this stage in the BTA’s evolution. He has the board’s total support and I know he’ll earn the country’s confidence as well.

From day one, Kevin will find a tourism economy on the rise with 11 months of consecutive year-over-year growth, visitor spending up, hotel occupancy growing, and a vacation air arrivals increase of 16 per cent.

That great performance is at least partly attributed to targeted airlift growth out of JFK in New York. Last year, passenger capacity from JFK was up 42 per cent through November and vacation air arrivals from New York up 47 per cent. With even more airlift coming online in 2017, we are optimistic about further growth out of JFK and also in Boston, where JetBlue recently announced year-round direct service on a larger aircraft.

These clear increases in visitor demand and airlift are the fire that fuels infrastructure projects. This year The Loren at Pink Beach will open. Morgan’s Point will have a new marina unveiled shortly and a Ritz-Reserve hotel in the near future. We also anticipate development shortly on the St Regis in St George’s. The Azura at the former Surf Side site is currently under construction. They all have a standard to chase, given the magnificent $100 million refurbishment of the Hamilton Princess.

Across the country things are happening. The buzz around Bermuda has returned. Look no further than the long list of travel best lists our island made for 2017. We estimate readership of those publications is equivalent to an exposure of 105 million travel consumers.

The BTA board is now setting strategy for the years ahead. We also deliberate regularly on how to overcome the challenges that have the potential to stunt or even derail this growth.

The biggest threat may be insufficient national unity around tourism. Too often good tourism ideas are killed or diminished because their author is at odds with a competitor or a decision maker. Sometimes it’s based on politics or race. Sometimes it’s because of protectionism, stubbornness, or selfishness. Whatever the reason, we need to figure out a way past it. We must do it for the country and all our people. The BTA will continue its legacy of transparency and opportunity because those are pathways of collaboration. To be successful though, we need partners prepared to promise similar commitments.

We also need partners who are responsive — nimble, prompt and accountable. While 2016 has been a year of progress the pace is painfully slow in many areas and it’s impeding the BTA’s ability to empower entrepreneurs who are ready to create jobs. As examples, the road to tourist mini vehicle rentals was eight years long and the journey to a more vibrant beach economy has inched along.

An emerging tourism industry is an excellent vehicle for job creation, but it’s not automatic. We need to cultivate it with engaged community partners who are committed to: providing value for the cost of our product, smart policies, and a bureaucratically light administrative structure that is more about progress than process. These are crucial no matter which political officials our democracy elevates to power. Remember, we compete with the world — not just the destination next door!

I believe the BTA has also earned credibility in households across Bermuda for its ability to do more with less. The taxpayer-funded budget of the BTA is about half what it used to be ten years ago. Yet, on many metrics, the results are better. Certainly, the Return On Investment is better. The BTA is providing a strong, almost unmatched, ROI for Bermuda.

If you think about it, the funding comes from our visitors, not from taxpayers’ pockets. Given this, we must figure out a way to invest more in tourism so that there is more reward for the people of our country. In addition, there is also an opportunity and an ability to grow visitor tax revenue so that our community can improve schools and roads, fund social services and programmes. The plan, as I see it, would also include a national commitment to reinvest more of the taxes visitors pay into growing tourism going forward. If we made a commitment to invest just half of visitor taxes into tourism each year, we would have more resources to invest in Bermuda’s future than we have today.

The BTA’s success is your success and the country’s success. So as we start the year, congratulations and thank you to all those who contributed to a stellar 2016. In the meantime, please also consider how we use this momentum to propel us forward.

We’re on the march to a bright tourism future, maybe even as bright as we once knew. But the next leg of the journey will be steep, as we continue to build on recent successes. We’ll need to overcome the challenges laid out here — and then some!

If we put our hearts and minds to it, I am confident that we’re up for it.

• David Dodwell is the chairman of the Bermuda Tourism Authority’s board of directors