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Tourism Board restructure to allow more people to take part

Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert announced today Government will restructure the Tourism Board to allow more people directly invovled with tourism to sit on it.At a press conference this afternoon he said: “These individuals will be given more authority over how the sales, marketing and promotional dollars are spent.” But he was quick to note that the restructuring plans is not an admission that the board, in its present form, is not up to standard.Mr Furbert also announced the formation of two new committees - the Business Development Committee (BDC) which will consist of the heads of Business Bermuda, and a new group, Bermuda Investment Managers Association (BIMA).BDC will be headed up by Ms Carol Folger, the chairwoman, who will be joined by Sean Morris of Appleby.Together they are charged with creating more synergy between the existing groups that receive government funding. According to Mr Furbert: “They will sit down and look at how they are each operating so they can each work more effectively, and of course to be more efficient in our spending.“These committees are tasked to produce and get new business here in Bermuda. We also will be putting together a group called the Business Sustainability Committee (BSC).”Mr Furbert added: “We are on a mission, the mission is simple, but yet challenging - to increase GDP and jobs through increased tourism arrivals, grow jobs in existing international business and encourage new businesses to come to our shores.“We will move our Island in the direction of a bigger and better future. There are those who believe in austerity, we believe in growth. There are those who believe that the glass is half empty, we believe the glass is half full. I believe the best is yet to come.“These committees are expected to be nimble and act and react quickly.”Mr Furbert also disclosed that the National Tourism Plan will be completed by early spring to outlay the vision for Bermuda’s Tourism Industry for the next five to ten years.“This interim report will be produced in the early part of March and I’m expecting the authors of the report to communicate with the public in general to ensure that we are on the right track.“That way we get a buy-in from the public going forward, so when the final report is written, its not their report, its not my report, its a report from all of us.”