Friday, 27th February 2026 — The Bermuda Hotel Association members are pleased to acknowledge and welcome the changes to the Closed and Restricted employment categories specific to Bartending and Housekeeping positions, as recently announced by the Minister of Economy & Labour, the Hon. Jason Hayward JP MP following the recent Hospitality Industry Summit which took place earlier this month.
With the referenced categories having been moved from closed to restricted effective the 1st March 2026, this will ensure that the Hotel industry is better positioned and able to ensure that we can recruit and onboard key staffing resources to fill these critically important guest service positions, which historically we have been challenged to fill, as we collectively prepare for the upcoming tourism season.
Stephen Todd, the BHA CEO stated “It remains our overall goal as an industry to recruit, train and retain as many Bermudians as we can, who are genuinely interested in pursuing a long-term career, given that there are a number of opportunities for them to do so. Additionally, we will continue to pursue this important objective and in keeping with the request of the Minister, plans are already underway to host a Hospitality Careers Fair on Wednesday 18th March 2026 at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, in conjunction with our industry partners, with additional details to be forthcoming and announced very soon.
We are committed to continuing to work in conjunction with the Ministry of Economy & Labour, the Department of Workforce Development, the Bermuda Tourism Authority, the Bermuda College as well as with that of our Hospitality Industry partners at the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce to attract Bermudians to our industry.”
