Wildlife Tours Australia

Placement organization

Name of organization: Wildlife Tours Australia
Town/city: Melbourne
Country: Australië
Website: http://wildlifetours.com.au

Student

Name of student: Tessa Trommelen

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Small group tour operator
Organization’s activities: Wildlife Tours Australia offers Great Ocean Road Tours, Phillip Island Penguin Parade Tours, Grampians Tours, Melbourne to Adelaide tours, Melbourne Day Tours as well as personalised charter services. As an intern, you will be involved in reservations, marketing and operations.
Target group of the organization: Budget conscious travelers
Company culture: Everyone works together: You are a team. The atmosphere between colleagues is amazing: No one is better than the other. It’s very information, but remains professional.
Number of employees: 15
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Reservations, marketing and operations.
Brief description of your daily activities: Reservations: Booking in tours, answering phones, replying to emails (answering questions, quotes or processing bookings) and doing additional administrative tasks.

Marketing: Contacting hotels, hostels and travel agents about our tours and making sure they have your brochures. It’s all about maintaining the relationship with your customers/surrounding businesses.

Operations: Preparing everything for the tour guides, getting the buses ready for the tours, making sure the manifests are correct for the drivers, picking up customers who stay outside of the city.
Brief description of your company assignment: I did research on the social media platforms of Wildlife Tours, asking the following questions: Which platforms do they have? Do they use it effectively? Does it influence the company and how? Which platforms are “missing”/would they need? How could they improve the engagement of their customers online?
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Supervision is great. They regularly check up on you, ask if you need any help. If I have any questions they are always open to help me out and they really try to think with you.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? flexible, stress-proof, eager to learn, team player, sociable and needs an eye for detail
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel, Writing Skills
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? Wildlife Tours arranged a hostel for me for the first few weeks.
How did you go to work every day? Depending on the weather either by bike or by train (you’d have to walk 25 minutes from the train station to the depot)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Working holiday visa
Do you need a work permit? No, you don’t need one.
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I arranged my visa online.
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? My visa got granted within a day.
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? That depends on your English skills. You will need to be able to talk on the phone with the customers (who are often from different nationalities). Communication can therefore sometimes be tricky. So, if you know your English is not advanced level, I would recommend taking a course.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € My one way ticket was €715 (booked with KILROY)
Accommodation (monthly): € Between €400-€500
Local transport (monthly): € Between €80-€100
General costs of living (monthly): € Between €300-€400 (Depending on how much you spend on groceries and going out etc.)
Costs of visa: € Around €350
Costs of work permit: € ?
What did the company pay for/to you? Wildlife Tours covers your accommodation costs up to $600 a month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t – I decided to just ‘let it happen’ and take it day by day. Australians are extremely friendly, open en sociable.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes. I am a perfectionist and put lots of pressure on myself to perform. They managed to calm me down and make it much more comfortable for me.

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: No recommendations, really. Just do your best, enjoy and soak up every little thing. You will love it here.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Melbourne is a fantastic city!! There’s a lot going on here. The city is vibrant and has lots of good places to go out for dinner and drinks. The clubs are nice as well. There are a lot of street musicians, magicians and street art performers. I absolutely love this city!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link