The chance reading of a magazine article and a desire to find a business opportunity for Bermudians has led to the launch of the Bermuda branch of a travel website.

Former UBP leader Wayne Furbert claims to be the first Bermudian to join the US-based company YTB and set up his own affiliated business last year and since then 300 Islanders have come on board with the scheme.

Now, YTB Bermuda is set to be officially launched at the Fairmont Southampton Resort on Wednesday February 6, following YTB Bahamas, which opened earlier this month and YTB Canada, which will go live at the beginning of next month.

The initiative works by representatives and Referring Travel Affiliates living in these locations selling travel, including flights, holidays and car rental services, through YTB websites and marketing online travel agencies to others in Bermuda, the US, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Canada.

Mr. Furbert decided to go for a holiday after stepping down from the party leadership last March and flew to Atlanta, where he stayed with a friend, who introduced him to a magazine about YTB and has never looked back since.

"I read the magazine and couldn't believe what I read," he said, "and I said: 'This is a great opportunity for Bermuda'.

"It is basically simple — everybody is booking online and doesn't it just make sense if you can book online and get a confirmation.

"It not only made common sense, but it also made business sense."

From there, Mr. Furbert went on to St. Louis, where he met up with YTB's president, Kim Sorensen, who told him to wait for the company's vice-president of international business development Derek Avera to come on board before joining up.

"He didn't call me back, so I called him and I said: 'I want to see you — give me a yes or no — can Bermuda do it?," he said.

"I met him and took with me some Bermuda sand and a book on the Island to show him and said: 'Here we have a market with a company in YTB that has people who love to travel and a country in Bermuda that loves to travel."

The way that money is made is by signing people up to the scheme and those who book a holiday get 60 percent of the commission fee back, while those who referred them in the first place receive $50 for every person they bring on board, $1,000 for every six people that enlist and $10,000 for every 100 people that join, said Mr. Furbert.

Once 500 people have been signed up they become a number one director, earning an average of $20,000, while level two directors can make $40,000 and level three $60,000, he added.

Mr. Furbert pressed ahead in the meanwhile, starting off small by enrolling several people at meetings, before going big at a convention held at the Fairmont Southampton Resort in which 100 Bermudians subscribed, with the current total of Bermudians now working for the company standing at more than 300.

"It is about allowing Bermuda's entrepreneurs to make a sizeable amount of money without much sweat and being creative about how you do it at the same time," he said.

"Where in the world within a company will you get a $10,000 bonus just like that?

"And the beauty of it is, you can be up and running in 10 minutes."

And he refutes any suggestions about the dangers of booking travel online, saying it is easy to use, secure and is the way forward for the future of travel.

Those that sign up are also entitled to a number of benefits, including 'fly-free' programmes, whereby they pay a $300 annual subscription fee and YTB flies yourself and companion to Tahiti, Mexico, Europe or Jamaica, provided they book a hotel room with them, or a $999 deal to go from Los Angeles to China with flight, hotel and three meals a day for nine days, according to Mr. Furbert.

"There are so many exciting things going on at YTB," he said.

"This is about all of us working together and is a relationship business where you help each other out and we are obliged to help each other succeed.

"This just allows ordinary Bermudians who have little business opportunities to do extraordinary things.

"It is about looking for opportunities for Bermudians to do rather than just talking about economic empowerment all the time."

Mr. Avera added: "The addition of Canada, Bermuda and the Bahamas represents the first step in YTB's international expansion plan. We look forward to adding even more countries to the YTB International family over the next year."

For more information contact Wayne Furbert on 300-1956 or e-mail wlfurbert@northrock.bm