In the Press...
Connie Ebright, owner of Ebright Travel, attributes her success to a stroke of luck and millions of dollars in free advertising. While luck certainly didn’t hurt, Ebright’s attribution downplays her own initiative.
Ebright was a relatively new travel agent the first time she went to Africa on a trip with her six sisters. While there, she fell in love with the continent, the people – “the adventure and the silence of the bush.”
“Africa connected with my heart and soul,” she said.
She knew immediately she wanted to be able to share her love of Africa with others. So upon her return to the United States, she enrolled in every specialist class for every country in Africa that she could find. She read everything she could get her hands on and she talked to anyone who would listen, and it was at this point that luck and initiative overlapped.
At the time a new Web site called Travance.com was garnering a lot of attention. A precursor to Tripology.com, the site helped link travelers with niche travel agents. Ebright noticed that the site had terrible write-ups on Africa and contacted the owner of the site to offer her services as a writer. She wrote blurbs on every country in Africa she had taken specialist classes on.
Because the Web site was new and different, the press began to take an interest, and eventually Associated Press contacted the site’s owner. But he didn’t know what to do with the press, so he sent AP to Ebright and asked her to do the interview, concentrating on her own knowledge of African travel.
Ebright was interviewed by the Associated Press. Not long afterwards, an article about her was splashed across the front page of every Sunday travel section that buys AP articles.
“I had a lucky angel on my shoulder,” she told Travel Market Report. “I had a million dollars worth of free ‘advertising’.”
At the time, although she held several specialist certifications in African countries, Ebright’s agency business still mostly consisted of standard fare cruises and tours.
That quickly changed.
“I was inundated. I had so many calls I didn’t know what to do.”
Her luck didn’t end there. One of the many people who read the article was a gentleman in England who ran a Web site called AfricanSafariJournals.com. He contacted Ebright and asked if she would be interested in getting involved with his site. Ebright writes trip journals for each of her visits to Africa, so she sent him one of her journals and he put it up on the site.
These journals have now become one of her main marketing tools. The itineraries outlined in the journals catch the attention of potential clients who then contact Ebright. When she hears from these prospects she often sends another journal, and lets them know she has more, detailing other itineraries.
“My journals sell my trips,” she told TMR.
However, Ebright added that many of the leads from AfricanSafariJournals.com do not pan out. In fact, most of her business comes through referrals and word of mouth.
Everyone Wants a Specialist
Although Ebright Travel is a full-service agency, it is not marketed as such. Ebright emphasizes her specialty every chance she gets. Her Web site, business cards, stationary all denote her specialty.
“Every e-mail I send out has my contact information and ‘African Safari Specialist’ under it. My Web site is totally devoted to Africa. You won’t see a cruise or a tour or anything except Africa, unless I tell you how to look for it,” she said.
Ebright told Travel Market Report that this kind of niche branding is absolutely essential to building one’s reputation as a specialist. Customers are looking for specialists, she stressed.
“Because of the Internet, people are so sophisticated. They want somebody who’s been there, done that, and knows the ins and outs. If they didn’t need a specialist, they could book their travel on their own,” she noted.
This need is particularly true for African travel; Africa is so vast and there are so many choices, Ebright said. New clients call her all the time and tell her they thought they could plan their safari themselves but quickly realized they couldn’t. It’s virtually impossible to differentiate between all the different safari camps on the Internet.
Once her clients have experienced her Africa trips, they frequently ask her to arrange their other travel.
“Many clients are now my clients for life because of the way I did their Africa trip for them. Particularly luxury clients…and those are really the ones that everyone wants,” she said.
Travel Market Report asked Ebright how she is able to offer the same level of detail when planning trips to destinations in which she does not specialize.
“It’s not easy,” she said, but she tries to pick supplier companies that are sister companies to ones she uses in Africa, or companies that offer packages in several destinations. That way she is already familiar with the quality of product they deliver.
For instance, if asked to plan a trip to Australia, Ebright will use Swain, which is owned by the same company that owns African Travel, a tour operator she uses for her African itineraries. She already knows the tours will be customized to her client’s specific needs and that “every I is dotted and every T crossed.”
Ebright, a member of Ensemble Travel Group, also told TMR she is conscientious about booking with Ensemble’s preferred suppliers because she feels secure in recommending these companies to her clients.
Selling African travel is extremely lucrative, Ebright said, noting that travel to Africa is not cheap. It takes $2,000 just to get there. African travel also draws lots of luxury clients. Many of her clients typically spend upwards of $20,000 per person for their travel.
However, because the destination is so expensive it is vulnerable to economic recessions.
“My business has been down this year. These are luxury trips, and a luxury trip is the one thing you don’t need in a recession.” Ebright told TMR.
Though her business mix remains 80% to 85% Africa travel, she has not had as much overall business this year as she’s had in years past. Despite the dip in business, Ebright herself is as busy as ever, and is looking to bring in outside agents to expand the agency’s cruise and tour business.
“I do think I need more diversification but I don’t have the time to do anything but Africa myself.”
Regardless of her niche’s vulnerability to the economy, Ebright told TMR Ebright Travel would never have been as successful as it’s been without it.
Associated Press Newspaper Article
Associated Press did an interview and picture of me that was on CNN TV News and then printed in newspapers across the United States on the front page of the Travel Section of Sunday newspapers.
Travel Agents Get Creative in Tough Times
Travel Agent Connie Ebright books packages to Africa out of her home to keep expenses down.
(AP) -- Many travel agents have left the industry since airlines cut their commissions early this year – after already being hit hard by the September 11 terrorist attacks that seriously crippled the travel business.
But others are finding ways to be more creative in the face of increased competition from Internet travel sites such as Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia.
Connie Ebright, (Ebrighttravel.com), an expert on African travel who claims firsthand knowledge of crocodiles and hippos, runs her business from home in Glendale, California, now. She closed another office to reduce expenses. Ebright, an independent agent, has been booking travel packages to "the continent I love" for about eight years following a career as a fashion representative for designers. "Things were very tough after September 11," she says. The cutback in airline commissions also hurt. Now she makes commissions from the tour operators she represents in Africa. She recalls putting together a special package for two couples for $35,000 per couple. "They were pampered in luxury from start to finish." The trip included stops in London and Cape Town, South Africa, before a short flight to Botswana for the photo safari of a lifetime. "Botswana is the heart and soul of Africa," says Ebright, whose clients stayed "in luxury tents" at safari camps owned by Orient Express hotels. "Botswana is the only place you can do a safari in a mokoro, a small dugout canoe for two propelled by a native with a pole. You are inches above water shared by hippos, elephants, and crocodiles."
The couples went on to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, then back to South Africa's Kruger National Park, "the premium game reserve in South Africa," wrapping up the trip at the lavish Sun City resort for a round of golf.
Travel specialists
Ebright also is one of the agent experts listed by a relatively new Web site called Travants.com. David Feit, 25, launched the travel site in January 2001 to bring agents and travelers together. Initially called Webeenthere.com, its name was changed to Travants.com this May. The Web site networks about 300 "expert" travel agents, located mostly in the United States. "Travants offers benefits to both agents and travelers," Feit says. "Wherever you want to go, we have a specialist who covers that country," he said in a telephone interview. "And we make sure our agents are actually experts." According to the Travants CEO, all listed agents are carefully screened during interviews and most have been in the travel business for years.
Feit believes many people aren't comfortable entering information online for automatic booking. "I don't think that complicated products like safaris can be booked successfully online." And with airlines, tour operators and rental car companies all trying to get rid of the travel agent as middleman, Travants keeps agents at work despite the new pressures on their industry.
Reprinted with permission of Associated Press
Connie Ebright, Ebright Travel, 3010 Annita Drive, Glendale, CA 91206
PH: 818-244-7599