The downturn in the economy has forced residents to be more careful with their dollars and more selective in their travel choices, one travel agent believes.Industry veteran Pam Maybury of C Travel has seen a shift in the type of travel residents are asking for, with many opting for package vacations like cruises.“People are cruising and definitely doing a lot of land tours, with Africa being very popular,” said Mrs Maybury. “I did a group to Africa last year and had 26 people. Normally we do anywhere between 20 and 40 people to Africa every year. We have people celebrating birthdays and with people turning 60 or 65 they are inviting their friends and do cruises. That is very popular. I usually do a lot of cruises for 28 to 30 days.”Mrs Maybury is now selling the seven-day Soul Train Caribbean Cruise which leaves from Fort Lauderdale next February. It is already nearly sold out, the appeal being R&B entertainers Patti LaBelle, Kool & the Gang and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.“It’s been very popular here in Bermuda,” said Mrs Maybury. “What you find now is people would rather do a cruise as opposed to three or four little trips a year because once you pay for that all your food and entertainment is included. People are more careful about where they go and they try to get value for money.”Online booking sites have also caused a change in the way travel is planned, she said.“I guess people will go online because it is quicker but not all the time is it cheaper,” Mrs Maybury warned. “That has affected the business, but we do a lot of cruises and tours and those people normally buy their tickets here. A lot of people have their reps who they prefer to deal with. Online, if you have a problem, that’s where you have to go back to but here if you run into trouble at least you have a voice you can speak to.”Back in the 1990s thousands flocked to the Caribbean to watch Test match cricket but now interest has died so much that only a handful make the trip.Mrs Maybury, who began booking cricket holiday tours in the early 1990s while working at Meyer Travel and travelled every year herself up to three years ago, began noticing the decline in numbers over a decade ago.“Basically it is the time of year, sometimes it’s February or March, sometimes it’s April/May so a lot of that comes into play, depending when people can get their holiday,” she explained.“The other thing I think is the demise of the [popularity of the] West Indies cricket team. Everybody likes a winner and people have lost interest. As long as they were winning they had us but now we’re looking at other packages to do. People are still going to cricket but not in the numbers that they used to go. I did about six this year — I used to do hundreds. It has really died off.“Most of the people who were going were seniors and most of them have passed on. They had the money and they had the time,” Mrs Maybury said. “The young people, once they have been to Barbados, are now going for different events, like Crop Over. They are going to St. Lucia for the jazz festival, so they are looking at different islands but for different events. The jazz festival does very well.”Barbados and Antigua were the most popular islands for cricket for Bermudians and tourism officials in those islands miss the large amounts of money Bermudians spent there.“We used to do back-to-back islands, Barbados and Antigua, but now because of the scheduling of the cricket there is no way to do back-to-back,” said Mrs Maybury. “Because we would go for ten days it becomes very expensive, anywhere from $2,500 to $3,000, and you still have to rent a car, eat and get game tickets. Because of the economy a lot of people just can’t do it.“About three years ago even Barbados were concerned that it was dying off and sent somebody up here from the tourism department to meet with us. But it hasn’t inspired us to come back.“Sports tours remain popular, however. There are residents who have planned to travel to England for the Olympics this summer; Mrs Maybury has some tickets available for track and field events. And in the wake of the recent success of the Carifta games, there has been talk that the Bermuda Track and Field Association is hoping to organise a charter for next year’s games in the Bahamas.“I’ve had a lot of calls already,” said Mrs Maybury.