Nomad Africa Adventure Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: Nomad Africa Adventure Tours
Town/city: Cape Town
Country: Afrika
Website:

Name of student: Jorinde Kerkhof

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Nomad is one of the largest adventure tour companies in Africa. In 1997 Alex Rutherford, founder and owner of Nomad, undertook a trans-Africa expedition lasting almost a year. He noticed a niche between strictly budget tours and the more upmarket operations. It was on that trip that the founding principle of Nomad was formed: Do it better and do it for less. Nomad provides adventure tours throughout Southern and East Africa. The accommodated tours are to fill the gap between a camping experience and an expensive lodge-tour while the camping tours allow the clients to have a truly African experience.
Target group of the organization: Europeans
Company culture: Nomad has two offices. In this office (in the city centre) work currently 15 employees. This office has 3 main departments: Sales, (online) marketing and reservations. Informal atmosphere.
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? Online marketing department
Brief description of your daily activities: The tasks I had to do we’re different each week. I had some daily tasks such as responding to reviews, Instagram posts and SEO for the website but next to my daily tasks I had all kind of projects what kept me busy for days or weeks.
Brief description of your company assignment: Getting insight in the wishes and needs of the British holidaymaker.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Most of the projects I did independently. There we’re some project which we did together as a team. If I had any questions I could always ask. Handrick (my mentor from the company and also the manager of the online marketing department) did not look over my shoulders the whole time. He just let me focus on my tasks and I just had to finish the tasks in time.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Flexibale, Independent but also a team player and sociable.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Photoshop skills and knowledge of SEO would have been useful but not necessary
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? 4exchange
How did you go to work every day? Uber

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Embassy
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? Too long
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
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? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 600
Accommodation (monthly): € 296
Local transport (monthly): € 100/200
General costs of living (monthly): € 550
Costs of visa: € Not sure, around 400/500 I think…
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? –

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Not at all
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: jorinde-@live.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I would recommend living in Observatory because there we’re living a lot of students of there and it is close to the city. I took the Uber to my work to the city centre (10 minutes). It is better to share the Uber though and the traffic is bad her. Especially in December. Furthermore even though it is cheap over here make sure you’ll save enough money because of all the nice things to do over here.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There are so many nice things to do in Cape Town, it’s unbelievable. It is so beautiful over here. Go to the beaches in Camps Bay or Clifton and hiking is a must (Lions head especially). Also you have to watch the sun set at Signall hill. The penguins on boulder beach, cape of good hope, chapmans peak drive and Aquila safari is also recommended.

Furthermore there are some nice shopping malls, beautiful scenery and the wine is so good over here. And if you go out for dinner you’ll be surprised how cheap everything is compared to the Netherlands.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link