Malta Tourism Authority

Placement organization

Name of organization: Malta Tourism Authority
Town/city: Valletta
Country: Malta
Website: http://www.visitmalta.com/

Student

Name of student: Annelien Corpel

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tourism authority
Organization’s activities: -To promote and advance Malta as a tourism destination
-To advise government on tourism operations and to issue licenses under the Act
-To contribute toward the improvement of the level of human resources in the tourism industry
-To advise government on the planning and development of the tourism industry as well as on the infrastructure supporting the industry

Target group of the organization: Tourists visiting Malta and the Ministry of Tourism
Company culture: There is some hierarchy with different departments, but it is all quite informal.
Number of employees: Around 100
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I’m working in the research unit of the marketing department.
Brief description of your daily activities: •Sorting questionnaires that are handed out by the MTA for translation/input preparation and response rate evaluation
•Translating tourist feedback from open-ended questions in the surveys carried out from Dutch to English
•Checking the data quality that is collected by an outsourcing company to see if it’s correct
•Performing data analyses on the profile of tourists visiting Malta and their motivation to come to Malta
•Putting received statistics into excel
•Providing tourists with a financial incentive when they have filled in a questionnaire to which such incentive is linked

Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment is about a new survey about social media. I print them for distribution, input the received surveys, analyse the results and write a report about it.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: You can ask anything, they always help you and try to make sure you always have something to do.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Flexible, independent, sociable
Additional company requirements for this placement? Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SPSS (basic knowledge)
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Any other language is useful for translating surveys and interacting with tourists, but not necessary

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Via a friend who got it from a NHTV student who did her placement in Malta as well.
How did you go to work every day? By bus

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
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? Not really necessary, everybody speaks English

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 280 (total of both flights)
Accommodation (monthly): € 300
Local transport (monthly): € 21
General costs of living (monthly): € 350
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? I got a one time payment of 300 euro

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t
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: 113264@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: The buses don’t always arrive on time, but you’ll get used to that.
There is a lot of picketpocking in Paceville, so don’t take important/expensive things with you when you go out.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Explore the island, it has beautiful beaches (Golden Bay, Riviera Bay), good shops in Sliema and you can go out in St. Julians (Paceville). The Eden cinema in St. Julians has good movies daily which are all in English.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link