Skift Take
Contiki is seeing more seasoned travelers shifting their focus from Europe to far-flung African adventures as the company digs into the immersive choice the post-pandemic traveler is hungry for.
Young travelers are hungry for adventure, and it's taking them to Africa.
Contiki, the social travel company for 18-35-year-olds, recently relaunched its tours to Africa and has seen a 57% increase in bookings compared to 2019. The New Zealand-based company, part of The Travel Corporation, has a range of 350 different tours in over 75 countries.
Contiki launched into Southern Africa in 2018 with its first trip with 600 passengers through South Africa.
"It inspired us to grow a footprint in the region. We then grew the length and breadth of itineraries up into Botswana and Namibia and launched these just as the pandemic hit," said Natasha Lawrence, commercial and product director at Contiki.
The company began operating tours to Africa again in May of this year.
"We started in North Africa in Egypt and Morocco and then got Southern Africa running in June, with the market roughly equating to the same size of our operations in Spain or Canada," said Lawrence. "Africa is still our newest and therefore our smallest operating region but one that we are forecas