Abercrombie & Kent

Placement organization

Name of organization: Abercrombie & Kent
Town/city: Melbourne
Country: Australië
Website: http://www.abercrombiekent.com

Name of student: Vera Tijsse Claase

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour Operator
Organization’s activities: The SMC part of the business is taking care of Australians travelling overseas. They create holiday itineraries, marketing, insurances and finally the bookings. The DMC part of the business is taking care of foreigners travelling to Australia. For example, the cruise team is
Target group of the organization: High end (the majority is 55+)
Company culture: The companies culture of my company is very respectful and laid back. Everyone is doing the best they can to help you if you need it. My company has a small hierarchy distance. Of course we do have general managers and the director manager. But in general I noticed it is a small distance. And we have a formal way of communicating towards each other. But my colleagues prefer to keep their private life and work separated.
Number of employees: 54
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Cruise Department
Brief description of your daily activities: It depends on the day. In the beginning I worked for Toby on the shore excursion part of the business. This means creating tours for our cruise ship passengers into Australia. Tasks which are included in this job are: calling suppliers, creating draft timings, sending booking letters, creating operational booking sheet, tour block spread sheets, run sheets and arranging guides for the tour. But after 8 weeks Anthony came back from his annual leave so I started to work for him. He’s working on the overland side of the business. These are short holidays before (pre) after (post) or in-between (overlands) their cruise holiday. Tasks which are included is arranging flights, book entrances, porterage, transport and in the end creating folders for each passenger.
Brief description of your company assignment: Creating new tours for our Australian cruise passengers travelling in Australia. The including ports are: Hobart Newcastle and Melbourne.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Good. I have to admit everyone is very busy all the time. But they’re taking care of me when needed.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, team player, sociable, flexible, stress-proof,
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, Excel, writing skills
English: Basic
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Yourself
How did you go to work every day? Public transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, working holiday visa
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Agency
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 5 days
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? If your English level is lower then B1, yes.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1400
Accommodation (monthly): € Because of the big currency fluctuation over the last 3 years i think it’s better to describe it in dollars: $760.
Local transport (monthly): € 85
General costs of living (monthly): € 350
Costs of visa: € 400
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? $800 nett per month. Please be careful with this. It seems allot, which I thought when I saw this amount of money. But keep in mind that Australia is an expensive country to live in.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I worked on my Internship plan before I went to Australia. One of the questions was to search for the countries culture.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: Veratijsseclaase@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Please contact me if you want to work for this company. I’m happy to go for a drink somewhere in Breda or a Skype Meeting and explain to you what my thoughts are of Australia and Abercrombie & Kent. Both of them are really awesome but nobody warned me for a couple of things here. So I want to prepare you the best I can.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Before my internship I travelled up the East Coast (Brisbane to Cairns) and Adelaide. Leisure activities surround Melbourne: Great Ocean Road, Dandenongs, Wilsons Promontory, Mornington Peninsula and Grampians. But I also went to Sydney for 5 days.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link