The global pandemic hasn’t just restricted young people’s ability to travel, it’s also closed them off to the kind of social connections essential for personal growth. To reflect a brighter future for travel and supporting their travel agent community - as well as this bottled-up desire for authentic human connections - Contiki, the world leader in youth social travel, has launched a bold evolution of its brand identity. Contiki’s amazing travel agent community can be confident the reinvigorated branding will elevate their selling power as the brand’s updated values still hold community and people at the heart of everything it does, while never compromising on fun. 

Along with an eye-catching new look and feel, signifying an optimism for the industry that meets the new needs of Gen-Z and Millennial clients, Contiki has also realized its goal of becoming entirely carbon neutral beginning this January 2022. This refreshed positioning is laser-focused on the fun, social experiences and sustainability the brand has been associated with for 60 years. 

“During these strange times, we took some time to really understand what our clients will want when the so-called ‘new-normal’ arrives,” says Simon Llanos, Contiki’s Chief Marketing Officer. “We thought about our position and how we communicate Social Travel, something the world has dearly missed. We focused on the things that are uniquely us: sharing incredible experiences, with like-minded people and a sense of fun, humour and community. We’ve bottled this feeling with our lively new brand evolution and can confidently say: ‘we look how we feel.’”

Contiki’s energetic new aesthetic is an expression of its values. The vivid colour shade, led by Contiki Green, leans into the energy, power and wonder of the feelings the brand creates on trips. “The evolution firmly places community at the heart of everything we do at Contiki, it expresses the emotional excitement of sharing your first travel moments with new friends from across the world,” Llanos adds. 

Contiki Green represents not only the new brand positioning but also the brand’s take on sustainability, ‘a new kind of green.’ “Contiki trips are intelligently designed to be 100% carbon neutral but sacrifice none of the fun or wonderful experiences to achieve this,” says Tasha Hayes, Contiki’s Sustainability Officer. “We know sustainability is incredibly important to our clients, but so is a complete travel experience and having a great time; we’ve looked at everything from our processes to communication to align with the ‘new kind of green,’” Hayes concludes.

“One thing the pandemic brought into significant focus was the importance of our global community,” continues Llanos. “Even when we were locked down in our homes, we were still connecting, still dreaming about travel and co-creating some inspirational content with our guests and partners. Even when we couldn’t travel, those special social bonds made on Contiki trips endured - and that is truly unique to us. So, for 2022 and beyond, we live by our brand ethos of ‘Travel.Together.’ which means to travel with one another, the cultures we enjoy and the environment, too.”

The evolution for Contiki comes at a time where the brand has set ambitious goals for 2022, continuing its global expansion in the 18-35s market. “In the last two months we’ve really started to see encouraging signs of a meaningful recovery,” says Adam Armstrong, Contiki CEO. “Our clients are resilient, confident and eager to resume their travels. We’ve developed this exciting new positioning with their help - and we look forward to welcoming them back to Social Travel with Contiki this year.”

To celebrate the brand evolution Contiki has released a new brand video: Brand explainer (see below). For more information please visit: contiki.com.