Bounty Adventures

Placement organization

Name of organization: Bounty Adventures
Town/city: Curacao
Country: Centraal Amerika & Caribbean
Website: http://bountyadventures.com

Name of student: Kirsten Huinen

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator
Organization’s activities: Bounty Adventures organised several trips with the catamaran and the bus through en around Curacao. The most famous tour of Bounty Adventures is the Klein Curacao tour with the catamaran. Other popular tours are the Sunset Sail, the half day lunch and snorkel tour and the fishing tour.
Target group of the organization: Tourists at Curacao
Company culture: The company culture is informal. The employers wear casual clothes and also at the office is always time for some jokes.
Number of employees: 40
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 am working at the office. Mostly I am at the head-office.
Brief description of your daily activities: Making reservation, contact with the costumers, mail tracking, phone recording, contact with my colleague. If there is a problem, my colleague will call me and I have to find a solution. Further I have contact with other touroperators, hotels and hostels. If there is an new tour I have to show the tour to the other touroperators, hotels and hostels, so that they will sell our new tour. I also make sure that the boats are ready to departure. I make sure that the food and drinks are ready. And that the crew knows where and when they have to pick up the boat. Also I make the schedule for the pick-up service.
Brief description of your company assignment: I need to do research about our bustours to get them more attractive for our costumers, first I need to find out what’s wrong with our bustours and then I need to find a solution for it.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Bounty Adventures is an informal organisation. There is an good connection and communication between the colleague. When you working at Bounty Adventures they treat you as an employee and not as an intern. You have to be independent and they give you full responsibility.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? teamplayer, flexible, sociable, independent
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, writing skills,
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German: Basic
Italian: Basic
Other languages: Dutch, mother tongue

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane, car

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? agency
How did you go to work every day? car

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? no
Do you need a work permit? yes, I needed a work permit for my internship
How did you arrange the necessary documents: embassy and agency
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 3 months
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? I you can’t speak good english I would recommend it

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 700
Accommodation (monthly): € 380
Local transport (monthly): € 250
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: € 300
What did the company pay for/to you? I get every month a financial compensation of 500 guldens

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t. The culture is normal. The only thing is that it takes a little bit longer with everything because the people of Curacao are a little bit lazy. Also the traffic is a little bit different, but you get used to it.
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: kirstenhuinen@live.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: First I would do research to a good accommodation. I am with an internship agency but the first thing they think about is making enough money. So you have to pay way more for your accommodation then if you find a accommodation by yourself. Also if you want to do your internship in Curacao I would find an accommodation with other students. It’s way more fun and it’s safer. Further if you go to Curacao you need a lot of money, so if you don’t have enough budget don’t go to Curacao, the island is really expensive. Also if you don’t like the heat don’t go to Curacao.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is a lot to do in Curacao. First of all there are many beautiful beaches where you can spend your day off and in the evening there is almost every day a happy hour. Further there are a lot of nice restaurants and also the local people are very nice.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link