Safe Safaris

0

Just finding the headquarters of Destinations & Adventures is a wild exploration. Tucked deep within Laurel Canyon, the travel packaging company is reached by a single lane road, complete with hairpin turns and potholes as deep as Pharaonic tombs.


It’s not Africa. But it probably will get customers in the mood.


“If a couple wants to get married by a tribal chief in Zambia, we arrange it,” said founder James Berkeley, who runs the company from his home with a handful of commission-based employees. “If Mom and Dad want to spend all day with the kids looking at the Pyramids, we’ll do that, too. Our niche is personalized travel, which is the fastest growing segment of the industry.”


Berkeley’s business, which he founded in 1995, customizes high-end itineraries to places like Bhutan, Thailand, and Namibia. As a “wholesaler,” he arranges all land transportation, which means hiring ground operators who meet each of his clients at their destinations and typically provides car and driver, deluxe accommodations, antiquities scholars and anything else they want.


All of which comes at a big price, of course. For an upcoming trip to Argentina and Chile, which runs $9,950 per person without airfare, clients take horseback rides near glaciers and private tango lessons. Lower-cost journeys to Jordan and the Dead Sea run $2,450, complete with an Islamic guide.


This year Berkeley expects to boost sales by 30 percent, based on first-quarter demand from clients, as well as a surge in travel due to an improving economy.


His best marketing tool is a color catalog that costs $100,000 to produce and mail. (He calls a photo of a couple dining in white tablecloth elegance just a few hundred yards from a herd of African elephants “a quintessential image.”)


But it’s a challenging business because so much is based on those ground operators who are half a world away. “I can have a beautiful catalog and competitive pricing, but if the ground operator doesn’t show up at the airport, the client will sour on the experience,” he said.



Starting at the bottom


One tip: He never goes for the lowest quote, knowing that the cost savings would be passed back to his clients through inferior services. “There are more than 500 operators in Egypt alone to choose from,” Berkeley said. “The big operators churn travelers up like a sausage factory.”


The Vanderbilt University graduate learned tourism from the bottom up. His first job was as a director of sales for Alumni Holidays, a Chicago-based firm that packaged group tours for universities and museums.


“It was the 1970s,” he recalled, “and airlines were government regulated. The only deals were charter flights. I’d take a group to Switzerland, where I’d stuff passport wallets and count luggage for 176 people.”


In 1985, Berkeley went to work for Hemphill Harris, an Encino-based travel packager that dominated the luxury travel market, and later to a rival luxury operator, Abercrombie & Kent, where he managed ground operations in Egypt.


“I was the kid who drew detailed maps of Nefertari’s and Ramses’ chambers,” he said. “Egypt is still my most favorite destination.”


Berkeley was later asked to run the firm’s Southern Africa division. Ironically, it was the prospect of another long-term posting that led to the founding of Destinations & Adventures. “I took $100,000 of my savings and said thank you very much but I’m going back to start my own company,” he said. “I missed my families and friends.”


In his first year, Berkeley made $85,000 in gross revenues. He sold trips slowly, using industry contacts, before putting out his first catalog in 2000 when revenues jumped to $1.5 million. Currency fluctuations and international terrorism had taught him that the industry ran in boom or bust cycles. Berkeley decided to spread his trips out across many locations, “in case a destination suddenly went in the tank.”


After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Berkeley’s revenues plummeted, compounded by the SARS and Avian Flu scares. Another challenge has been the Internet. Travel products used to be sold exclusively by wholesalers to retail agents, but today consumers can book flights and hotels on the Web. “You’ve got safari camps in Africa marketing straight to their clients in Los Angeles,” said Berkeley. “It’s a free-for-all.”


He figures that his edge is knowledge and experience. “The Internet can help you find the best airfare to fly to Botswana,” he said. “But it can’t tell you which of the 30 or 40 safari camps in the Okavango Delta will deliver the best product. That comes from having been there many times, and knowing which guide, which operator, which camp is on top.”


Sue Turner, president of Vacation Boatique, a Newport Beach travel agency, said 80 percent of her clients want the kind of detailed, customized trips Berkeley provides. Turner, who does $200,000 in annual business with Destinations & Adventures, said Berkeley is a master of itinerary planning.


“Large wholesalers are doing custom travel because the market has become so sophisticated,” she said. “But no other supplier calls clients in Kenya because they’re unhappy with their safari camp. Jim Berkeley can respond to problems beyond his control weather, political unrest, or flight cancellations because he’s so well-connected and dynamic.”

No posts to display