John Anderson (founder of Contiki Holidays)

John Duncan Anderson MNZM is a New Zealand businessman, author and celebrity speaker. He is the founder of the travel and leisure company Contiki Tours. The company is now owned by Trafalgar Tours, itself a division of The Travel Corporation

Anderson was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1938. He is married to Ali (Alison), a passenger who fell ill on one of Contiki's first tours. They have four children.

Anderson's parents divorced when he was five years old; he was raised primarily by his mother although maintained a good relationship with his father, a dentist who emigrated to England when he was a child.

Anderson emigrated to England in 1961, returning to New Zealand in 1979 with a wife and family. He lived in Auckland for many years and currently lives in Blenheim, Marlborough.

In the 2012 New Year Honours, Anderson was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to tourism.

In 1960 Anderson travelled to London, England where his father was living. Anderson planned his route to England to include many stopovers en route. As the president of his local Jaycees association, Anderson contacted fellow presidents in the cities that he planned and received many offers to host him. In this way, Anderson was able to defray his travel costs considerably.

In his book Only Two Seats Left Anderson describes his travels with a mixture of awe and sense of adventure. This was Anderson's first travel outside of New Zealand which at that time had a population of just over 2 million.

Arriving in England in 1962, Anderson set about planning a trip to see Europe however had only £25 to his name Anderson came up with the idea of advertising for 11 other young Australasians to join him on the trip. He worked out the total costs for the trip and then divided by 11, thus providing a free seat for himself.

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