Government Senator Marc Bean has defended the hiring and firing of American firm Sales Focus to run Bermuda's New York tourism office.

The Junior Minister of Tourism said the controversial outsourcing, which replaced long-term Bermudian employees, was only stopped because of economic hard-times.

He said: "Some will argue that they were gone too soon; however, market conditions have been changing rapidly over the past few years. These changes are being driven by the global economic situation. It was pointless to retain a sales agency in an environment where travel had stagnated.

"An assessment showed that such an investment would have little impact on air arrivals during last year. The Department needed to use their funds more efficiently and in other areas."

Sen. Bean was reading the Tourism brief, previously presented in the House of Assembly by Derrick Burgess on behalf of Premier Ewart Brown who was at a CARICOM meeting in Dominica.

Sales Focus was hired in July 2008 and between ten and 12 Bermudians were said to have lost their jobs. The plan to outsource was stalled briefly when the Bermuda Public Service Union took the Tourism Ministry to Supreme Court over its failure to hold consultation over the move.

The BPSU argued that if it had been consulted it may have been able to suggest alternatives to redundancies, which workers said split families and left them little time to find new homes, jobs and schools for their children on the Island.

However, by April 2009, it was revealed that Sales Focus had been let go with six months left on their contract.

Tourism Director William Griffiths explained at the time that the contract was ended because the team were unable to "drive new sales to Bermuda".

Yesterday Sen. Bean added that there was no regret with the hiring and had there been a better economy the outcome could have been different.

He added: "To be clear, had the market conditions been different the SalesFocus outcome may have been different. However strategic decisions had to be made. We make no apologies for that."