SunSplash Travel

Placement organization

Name of organization: SunSplash Travel
Town/city: Chioggia
Country: Italië
Website: http://www.sunsplashtravel.eu/

Name of student: Robert Mikus

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour Operator/Travel Agency
Organization’s activities: Create bespoke tours, closed and open tours, guided tours etc.
Target group of the organization: Travelers
Company culture: Mellow, relaxed and as an intern you pretty have free reign do what you want as long as you ask beforehand. Sabrina is the boss and makes the final decision in the end, but everyone has a say and there is no other person who is boss over anyone else.
Number of employees: 6
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Back Office, there is no real department i fit into, i did a little bit of everything.
Brief description of your daily activities: Mail, print lists for tours, call hotels/restaurants, make brochures, make lists of hotels/restaurants in areas so they could be mailed to ask if they have availability for tour groups, update their website with new tours.
Brief description of your company assignment: I had to resarch how other inbound TO’s used social media to attract and keep in touch with their client base.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Was good. In the beginning a lot of supervision, towards the end a lot less due to all the tours that needed to be done and i was left to fend for myself, which wasnt so bad because it gave me tons of time to complete my assignment.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent but also team player, flexible, stress-proof
Additional company requirements for this placement? dont really need any
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French: Intermediate
German:
Italian: Advanced
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane/car/train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Company arranged it
How did you go to work every day? 5 minutes by foot, 2 minutes by bike

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Nope
Do you need a work permit? Nope
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? Yes
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? YES!!!!

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 220
Accommodation (monthly): € 360
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? They paid one Tour for me to Tuscany for Easter. They also bought a bike for me to use which i need to give back when i leave.

The company offers little in financial compensation, but they make up for it with kind words and a family feeling. You are important to them and they make sure to take good care of you. They will go out of their way to help you out if you have any questions or problems.

When i first arrived i was really bummed that there wouldnt be a compensation, but after a month it didnt bother me anymore and i appreciated what they had done and arranged for me far more then any kind of compensation would have.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didnt. Big mistake. Being on time has little meaning here, and you can easily stroll into work 10-20 minutes late every morning and never be reprimanded. The working hours are from 9-13, then you have a 2 hour lunchbreak (all the stores are closed so you still have to eat at home), and then work again from 15-19. It took some time to get used to but once the good weather kicks in its awesome to have a two hour break and swing by the beach which is 5 minutes walk from work.

Dinners are late obviously, and you eat a warm meal during lunch usually. so this is also something u need to get used to.

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: robertmikus@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: LEARN ITALIAN!!! this is the single most IMPORTANT thing to do before you get here. English is very very subpar and pretty much basic or baby level here in Chioggia. If you can speak italian even remotely basic, you will have a much better experience then i had. Rome, Bologna, Milan etc are international cities with students who speak decent english, but here in Chioggia everybody speaks only Italian and very few students that come home for the weekend speak any decent kind of english. So really, take that italian course, learn some of the basics and then improve on it when you are here. There are a bunch of students that come back in the weekend and they are amazing people to hang out with, but i can only imagine how much better it would have been if i had actually been able to have good conversations with them on occasion.

DONT get drunk, Italians go out and drink heavily, but getting drunk at parties is a big nono, and they really look down on this kind of behaviour.

DO socialize and make friends. Invite them for lunch or dinner, or a spritz. Italians love to be social and you can have a much better connection and bond with friends this way.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Beach, great biking possibilities or running areas. Clubs etc. The town is small though and you’ll get bored quickly if yuo dont make friends.

Venice is an hour by bus (11,- for a return busticket) and is great to see. Bologna is about 40,- return ticket by train and about a 3 hour ride, Milan can range between 50-80 euro return and is about 4 hours. Rome is expensive, around 160,- for a return ticket by train and takes about 5 hours. Checking blablacar.com is a cheaper alternative which i found out near the end of my placement sadly. With this you can travel to Napoli or more down south for a lot cheaper then by train!!

you can also fly pretty cheap to some destinations from Venice, but going back to Holland is expensive, as they only fly to schiphol from Marco polo airport, so unless you(or your parents) have a lot of money you wont be visiting Holland during your internship.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link