This Tour Company Will Pay for Your First Passport When You Book an International Trip
If you're between the ages of 18 and 35 and have never traveled internationally, Contiki wants to give you a free passport.
There’s nothing quite like the first time you leave your country: the anxiety coupled with excitement as you board the plane, the touchdown in a country you've always dreamt of seeing, and the thrill of navigating a new language.
Considering international travel is at an all-time high, it may come as a surprise that half of millennials haven’t paused from Instagramming to apply for a passport. For tour companies catered to the 18 to 35 crowd, that’s quite the margin of opportunity. Based on these stats, tour company Contiki decided to offer a one-of-a-kind deal earlier this year where they paid for any American first-time traveler’s passport fees. The promo proved so successful — and impactful — they decided to institute it as an evergreen offer beginning April 2.
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What made this 55-year-old tour company pivot their policies? Findings from their fielded study called the "Power of Travel," where they polled 3,000 millennials on their jet-setting experiences. As Adam Cooper, the president of Contiki explained, their research revealed international travel has an overwhelmingly positive influence — from developing a stronger sense of self to invoking tighter interpersonal relationships. “We’re striving to inspire and encourage more first-time travelers to book a trip by instituting this initiative on an ongoing basis, assisting first-timers in getting travel’s ‘golden ticket’ — the passport,” he said.
Speaking as a seasoned traveler who didn’t get her first passport until the age of 25, Contiki’s example is one other travel companies should follow. Though the cost of a passport isn’t too steep, the process itself is enough to prevent late-bloomers from getting out of town. After all, once you catch the travel bug, you never want to stop moving. I should know — I’ll be catching a flight to my 28th country in four years tomorrow.
To take advantage of this offer, visit Contiki.com.