diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 44c256c375..0b7f257813 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ before_install:
   - if [ "$CXX" = "g++" ]; then
       sudo apt-get install -qq g++-4.9;
       export CXX="g++-4.9" CC="gcc-4.9";
+      export GCC_COLORS='error=01;31:warning=01;35:note=01;36:caret=01;32:locus=01:quote=01';
     else
       sudo apt-get install -qq --allow-unauthenticated llvm-3.6 llvm-3.6-dev clang-3.6 libstdc++-4.8-dev;
       export CXX="clang++-3.6" CC="clang-3.6";