It takes more than an economic crisis to stop Bermudians from travelling, if Meyer-Franklin Travel's latest addition to its leisure travel team is anything to go by.

The travel agency appointed former Delta Air Lines senior customer service agent Sakinah Brangman as a travel agent in a bid to develop the leisure side of the business.

But despite the current financial turmoil, Meyer-Franklin's leisure and corporate businesses were more than holding their own, according to Cheryl Hayward-Chew, president of Meyer-Franklin Travel.

Meanwhile, Carl Paiva, CEO of C-Travel said that his company was well-diversified and placed to withstand the pressures of today's global downturn.

He said that the travel side of the business was in line with previous years, with customers taking advantage of discounts on cruises, in particular.

But C-Travel's corporate division had experienced a decline, traditionally softening in October, but picking up again in January, as companies become more conservative with their spending on travel, said Mr. Paiva.

"We have not seen a dramatic shift yet," he said.

"Our strength is in diversity in that we deal with cruises, tours and the corporate market and we are not structured with one primary specific revenue stream.

"I think, because travel has become a necessity, that we will continue to see a certain stability in travel trends from people getting off the Island and perhaps more people taking advantage of tours and cruises because the prices are so good at the moment.

"And I hope that the corporate market will level off and start to be more active again, because it impacts the whole community and with less money circulating in the local economy it is a concern for all of us."

He said plans were afoot to implement new online booking tools this quarter to help customers do their own research and book their trips, at the same time as enjoying the support of C-Travel's service.

"The good thing to come out of all this with the economic downturn is that it has forced us to step up our initiatives and if there is a plus out of a recession, it is that we have suppliers and associates who are more readily available to work with us to develop and grow their business," he said.

Ms Hayward-Chew said the reason behind the move to strengthen Meyer-Franklin's leisure part of the company was to deal with the demand it expects.

"It is a time when you do not see much hiring going on," she said. "But we wanted to make sure we had the manpower to handle the business we are anticipating.

"We also came to the point where we were looking for young people with new and fresh ideas and dynamism and enthusiasm."

She said overall business was the same as last year, with a number of bookings particularly on the leisure side.

"We have found that we are pretty much on par from last year from both the corporate and leisure side," she said.

"From the leisure side we are getting the bookings — people are booking cruises and many are being tempted by the very good pricing on some holidays. We find that with Bermudians travel is almost one of those necessities."

However, from the corporate travel perspective there had been a shift in business, with several companies cutting back on their travel and doing more video and telephone conferencing, while new start-ups and smaller businesses which were growing have been increasing their travel needs, said Ms Hayward-Chew.

She added that Meyer-Franklin planned to expand its American Express service for global business accounts as a dedicated provider in the Caribbean countries where it is not available.

And Ms Hayward-Chew predicts even more reliance on automation in the future, especially in terms of online booking, which Meyer-Franklin is changing over to a new 'touchless' system for flights starting and ending in Bermuda.

Ms Brangman, who hails from St. George's, brings 10 years of travel-related customer service to her new role, including eight years with Delta Air Lines.

As a member of the leisure travel team, she helps clients with all aspects of their holiday travel needs, assisting them in choosing between travel modes — such as cruises, land tours or adventure travel — as well as destinations and travel companies.

Ms Brangman also advises on visa and passport requirements, while her airline background has given her a good understanding of passenger ticketing processes, while, in addition, she serves customers who use Meyer-Franklin's online vacation planner.

Since 2007, Ms Brangman worked as customer-service supervisor and operations administrator with BAS/ASB Executive Jet Facility and for eight years before that as a senior customer-service agent, agent-in-charge and complaint-resolution official with Delta Air Lines. She has received special training in helping passengers with disabilities.

Ms Brangman recently completed training with Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise and Land Tours, Globus Tours, as well as Marriott, Fairmont and Wyndham Hotels.