Abang Africa Travel
Placement organization
Name of organization: Abang Africa Travel
Town/city: Cape Town
Country: Zuid-Afrika
Website: http://www.abangafrica.com/
Student
Name of student: Lisa Schenkels
Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2013-2014
Information about placement organization
Type of organization: small tour operator
Organization’s activities: I just came back from a lovely ‘end of year trip’ to Drakensbergen! We flew with the entire AAA Travel and Abang Africa Travel team to Durban. After a very busy and successful year the ‘end of year trip’ is on the calendar every year around November. We were all very excited as the destination was a surprise. We enjoyed ourselves, we did some teambuilding and so we can improve our service to the clients. Abang also organize some small activities sometimes. Like to have lunch with everyone together or celebrate Sinterklaas.
Target group of the organization: People who are booking online, adventure types. Also the couples without any kids.
Company culture: Abang Africa Travel is owned by Jaap Kreeftenberg & Malose Manaka.
management: Tinus, Anne
Consultants: Joseph
Bookkeeping: Maria
Contract IT support: Kent, Ben Waseem (AAA travel)
Interns
Number of employees: 4
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes
Information about your placement
In which department(s) are you working? There are no specific departments. Everyone has his/her own task.
Brief description of your daily activities: The basis duties that is required of me are mainly administrative task. Such a answering emails or phone when is necessary and calling people if needed. Other not daily task are some site inspection of tours and accommodation and assisting in the marketing and promotion of Abang Africa website, Facebook and Twitter. I also have to do some translations into Dutch or from German to English. The activity I did like the most was to organize and lead the Township tour in November.
Translations
I frequently had to do some translations of travel itinerary, invoices, e-mails and even websites. I had to translate from English to Dutch, Dutch to English and German to English or English to German. This was for internal and external use, so it was important that everything was correct translated.
Marketing
• Facebook: Abang Africa updates their Facebook on daily basis. This is another way for creating more brand awareness. Facebook is used for showing all the possible activities, workshops and trips that we offer throughout South Africa. It is also used for updating some new sustainable facts, update about our new memberships or introduce our new employees. Every day we try to update something on Facebook that trigger people to like and share our post.
• Abang Africa Website: On our website we show some trips we offer to our clients. Nomad tours are popular group tours we sell. I had to set up new Nomad Tours on our website, included a picture strip that appeals to people and a good sales chat that is different from the nomad tours them self. I’m also responsible for other promotion work on our website, like the SEO check and our travel tips.
• New landing page: Kaapstadmagazine.nl wrote an article about a selection of possible activities, workshops and trips that we offer throughout South Africa. Together with Anne we specially develop a new Dutch and German landings page for our customers to assist them.
• Twitter
Memberships
• I was responsible to get our membership of The Code. Now we are the first Tour Operator in South Africa to sign ‘The Code’ against child sex tourism.
• Together with Anne we worked to reach the Travelife Partner Level. Travelife is a training, management and certification initiative for tourism companies committed to reach sustainability. Now we can work with European and international tour operators to manage and promote sustainability. We had to fill in the travelife reporting tool which support us to evaluate and report on our sustainability achievement. We also had to make an action plan (wo, what, when) and implementation of concrete actions. Now we are the first Compagny in South Africa with a Travelife Partner Level.
Local Jazz and Overnight Experience
Organise a township overnight in combine with the local jazz festival was my personal project. I organised and hosted a group tour for other students in Cape Town.
Brief description of your company assignment: Strategic Marketing Plan: Abang Africa is active on Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter. They would like to find out how they can reach their target group and convince them to book with Abang Africa Travel. They would like to obtain a better insight into the wishes, expectations and opinions of the target group and which target group they can attract more. This will allow them to optimize the different social media platforms.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: There is a good supervision. They pay attention to your assignments and will help wherever they can.
Requirements for students on placement
What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Teamplayer, independent,sociable, flexible, representable
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Internet, Outlook, SEO, MailChimp
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:
The trip
Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane
Accommodation
How did you arrange your accommodation? I arranged my accommodation through CapeTownRochs. This is an organization that arranges a lot for interns (transfer, african sim cart). Also 4Exchange is a good organisation to arrange you accomodation.
How did you go to work every day? by foot, 25 minutes walk from Longstreet to Green Point
Visa / work permit / vaccinations
Do you need a visa? Yes, intership visa.
Do you need a work permit? No, we don’t earn money.
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I recommend you to arrange your visa in advance in Den Haag. This take a lot of time, at least a couple of months, they are very strict and you have to come back at least three times. So make sure that you bear that in mind. It is also a possibility to come with a tourist visa that extend after 90 days. In South Africa everything is going really slow, so it take some time to accomplish that as well.
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 3 months
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? 3 months for DTP and Hepatitis A. I already had hepatitis B.
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? No
The costs in euros
Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1125.96 (KLM directly)
Accommodation (monthly): € 299.67 (4250 rand each month)
Local transport (monthly): € 100 (cost of a mini bus is 7 rand,regardless of the distance. Using intercab taxi is also very cheap 9 rand per kilometer.
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: € 50 but you also have to pay a guarantee of 750 euro. And think about the cost for your vaccinations and other documents. This will be an amount of around 250 euro.
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? They can give you a transport from the airport to your accommodation. You also get a discount when you want to book a trip, you have the ability to visit educationals, get free soccer tickets and of course the end of year trip. You don’t get paid but you have enough other things witch safe you money and see more of beautiful country.
Culture
How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t really actually. I read something on the internet so I know the basic things. You have to experience it yourself when you here. It is not a big culture shock, just more relax and everybody is very open and friendly.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, I learned a lot during my time here. I learned to appreciate everything I have in my life. My family, friends, a house. I enjoyed the lovely nature in South Africa and the way of living. They have no stress and no agenda’s. In the office you still have to work hard but that is great. Your supervisor is from the Netherlands so there is still a Dutch influence on your work.
Future students on placement
Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: lisa.schenkels@hotmail.com
Other information
Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Don’t be too scared about everything in South Africa. People told me that South Africa is very dangerous and you can’t walk alone on the street. But South Africa is a lovely country! The nature is beautiful and people are very friendly and open. You still have to think about your safety of course and don’t walk alone during night. You know which places are safety to walk and which not, just trust your own feeling.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Abang can assist you to book the most beautiful trips around Cape Town. I already did the Garden Route, went to Addo elephant park and I want to book a Nomad Tour at the end of my internship. I recommend not to book your flight back directly after your finish your internship. But take some time to explore the beautiful country a bit further than just Cape Town during your weekends.
Media
Youtube link Youtube placement video link