Bill Hanbury, the CEO of the Bermuda Tourism Authority, will finish his contract by the end of this calendar year, according to Kenneth Bascome, the Junior Minister of Tourism.

No payment to Mr Hanbury has yet been made beyond his contractual entitlement. The discretionary performance incentive has yet been determined.

The incentive payment is tied to visitor arrival numbers, Mr Bascome told MPs this morning, but said that figure was not tied to a specific threshold.

Jamahl Simmons, the Shadow Minister for Tourism, asked if a succession plan was in place.

Parliament heard that five firms had responded to a request for proposal to assist, but said no firm had been selected yet.

Mr Bascome was repeatedly questioned by the Opposition on the numbers of Bermudians earmarked for training for work in the island’s planned casino industry, to which the junior minister replied that he had not yet had discussions with the gaming commission in any depth.

Saying he was new to his position, Mr Bascome added: “As I grow into this, those honourable members will be aware that they will have the answers they are seeking.”

Progressive Labour Party MP Zane DeSilva pointed out that Shawn Crockwell, the former tourism minister, had said amendments had been made to the 2014 Act and would be brought to the House, with regulations, “as expeditiously as possible”.

Mr Bascome told Parliament that he did not feel the continued absence of regulations caused the island any reputational risk.

Later in the evening, during the motion to adjourn, Mr Bascome said he had given an incorrect response to a supplementary question relating to the BTA and moved to clarify the situation.

He said: “The BTA CEO is driving his organisation to meet four primary objectives to grow tourism in Bermuda this year: increase leisure air arrivals year-over-year by at least 4 per cent, increase total leisure visitor spending by at least 5 per cent, increase the number of cruise calls for Hamilton and St George’s over 2016 and increase the number of room nights directly influenced by BTA sales and marketing efforts and the visitor events it supports.

“Every member of the BTA team will have his or her performance judged against these core corporate objectives in 2016, including the CEO.

“Personal objectives will play a role too, but at the highest levels of the organisation, corporate objectives make up 80 per cent of the performance review and personal objectives make up the other 20 per cent.

“Once all of the information is in on corporate and personal objectives for 2016, a decision is made by the Board on whether to trigger incentive payments.”