PHOTO: The company's safaris provide travelers with up-close-and-personal wildlife experiences.

Dave Herbert left home in London at age 20 and traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, in the first leg of a planned trip around the world. But he ended up staying in the country and making it his home. “Africa gets in your blood,” he says. Herbert has been actively involved in the African tourism industry for well over 40 years. He launched a camping company in 1968 and then founded African Travel in 1971. Today he serves as CEO of Glendale, Calif.-based Great Safaris. We sat down with Herbert to discuss his take on the industry’s evolution and the important role agents play in selling Great Safaris’ tour programs.

What changes have you seen in the travel industry over the past four-plus decades?

When I first came to the States in 1973 I was promoting some lodges in Africa and calling on travel agents in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Most agents were issuing air tickets. They had their heads in their GDSs and in the back would be maybe two or three vacation agents out of 20 staff members. I would meet with them. They generally were experienced. The brick-and-mortar agents were able to share information with colleagues in the office when they would return from a trip.

Fast forward to today. Most agents are working remotely. There are fewer brick-and-mortar agencies, and even those might have contractors all over the country. There’s a lack of skill sets in a large majority of people who call themselves travel counselors. There are card mills recruiting thousands of independent contractors. I saw an ad that said for $35.99 you could become a travel agent, no experience necessary.

Distribution is really the big change. Operators like myself have to seek out experienced agents — counselors with a following, with clients — and I would say luxury clients because our product is expensive compared to other destinations.

Most operators now take some direct bookings from consumers. Where do you stand on that issue?

We are a pure wholesaler in that we will give information to consumers, but we don’t take bookings from them. Our clients are travel agents. Our business model has been to stick with the trade. I don’t think you can effectively do both. We’ll give a consumer information and then say, “Who is your agent? Tell her you’ve spoken to us and we’ll be happy to work with her.”

If we determine that an agent is not able to tell clients what they should do, we encourage setting up a three-way conference call with one of our experienced staff members so they can determine what the clients want to do, what their timeline is and other qualification questions.

What sorts of sales skills are important for today’s travel agent?

An experienced agent will qualify the clients more effectively, like they used to. Sometimes agents just take guesses at what they think clients want without really asking the hard questions. They really need to [determine] a budget. I don’t think you can walk into a car dealer and say, “I want a Mercedes but I only want to pay for a Ford.” The budget is important.

If agents are going to sell, they’d better provide information that is not freely available on the web — that sense of what you’re going to experience. I’ve never met anybody who doesn’t want to go to Africa. So why do so few actually go?

I sometimes talk to agents who have returned from Africa and tell me what an incredible experience it was, and I say, “Have you booked any clients?” And they say, “No, nobody is asking for it.”

When I hear that I cringe. If you’re selling life insurance you’d never sell a single policy if you wait for people to ask for it. I think sales training is important, and I don’t mean destination training.

How do you see the future of the distribution system evolving?

The airlines develop their market directly. They’ve got incredible websites. It’s a commodity and they can change the fares 50 times a day. They’ve figured out how to fill their planes.

I’ve spoken to a number of agents and it’s not a case of if, it’s a case of when the cruise lines will be cutting out commissions. Wall Street investors will tell cruise companies, “Your stock is not doing well — here’s a way to cut $1 billion out of your costs.” When this happens — and it will only take one to do it — the others will follow. We’re already seeing signs of that with bookings made on board their ships.