Dave Herbert, who stepped down in May as managing director of African Travel, has created a new company, Great Safaris, in partnership with Goway Travel.
Great Safaris sells upscale, FIT trips to South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Herbert founded African Travel in the U.S. 34 years ago. In 1999, Herbert sold the company to Far & Wide Travel Corp. Four years later, the conglomerate went bankrupt, taking African Travel into bankruptcy with it.
TravCorp bought the company out of bankruptcy and appointed Herbert managing director in 2006.
"My decision to leave African Travel was because I wanted to be an owner/entrepreneur," said Herbert. "[TravCorp] is a fine organization, but it wasn’t in my DNA to be part of a larger organization."
Herbert said that he had originally intended to return to Africa and set up a business there. Instead, he partnered with Bruce Hodge, founder and president of Canadian company Goway Travel, to create Great Safaris LLC, an affiliate of Goway.
Great Safaris has a staff of five in Glendale, Calif., which Herbert hopes to grow to 10 in 2011.
Great Safaris has tapped into Goway’s existing reservation system, which ultimately will be used to give agents 24/7 access to booking and assistance.