Orange Journeys

Placement organization

Name of organization: Orange Journeys
Town/city: Cronulla
Country: Australië
Website: http://www.orangejourneys.com.au

Student

Name of student: Leon de Boer

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Inbound DMC & Travel Agency
Organization’s activities: Orange Journeys is a small company in Cronulla, a southern suburb of Sydney. The company is known as a travel agency, but recently started his inbound activities. The inbound activities are at this stage small but is developing very quickly. Some major European tour operators are clients of Orange Journeys and this group is getting bigger all the time.
Target group of the organization: Western European (Group) Tour Operators
Company culture: The atmosphere in the company is very homely and the contact between the employees is very good. The company is informal, but because of the travel agency you have to be representative. All employees are very nice and friendly.
Number of employees: 4 (including student)
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? All departments
– Inbound operations
– Marketing
– Product Development
– Helping with the Travel Agency, be aware that you don’t sell any holidays in the travel agency, the community is very closed in the Sutherland Shire
Brief description of your daily activities: The daily activities are very depending on what is happening on a day. Inbound operations do take a lot of time daily. This can be preparing trip details, rooming lists, passenger lists, keep in contact with local partners etc.

Because of the importance of the company assignment, I have spend a lot of time with this. The company is giving more than enough time to work on the company assignment.

Product Development is mainly creating new itineraries for the inbound DMC, which is at this stage very important because the inbound DMC is developing very quickly.

Helping with the Travel Agency is mainly helping the other employees with the back office systems.

Besides these activities there is a ton of other activities that happen on a day which are not expected. This makes it fun to go back to work everyday!
Brief description of your company assignment: The organization started its inbound DMC activities in 2015 and currently has 2-3 Dutch and European tour operators as clients. Further development of its DMC activities will be key to the overall future growth of the business. The student will be assigned with research of the (Western) European market for (group) tour operators, specifically identifying those that do not have destination Australia in their portfolio. The student will then develop a strategy and implementation plan which the organization can use in targeting a shortlist of potential new clients and in preparations of the WTM 2016 and ITB 2017 travel trade shows.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision is amazing, because of the size of the company you will see everything that happens on a day in the company. You get involved in all the things that happen on a daily basis. The company supervisor is very nice (Dutchie :D) and very willing to share his knowledge to help you develop as a student.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Sociable, flexible,
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, 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? Company
How did you go to work every day? Train

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, Working Holiday Visa Subclass 417
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Online
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 1 hour
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? Only when having big problems with speaking English, when you’re here you basically learn it in a couple of weeks

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1200
Accommodation (monthly): € 650
Local transport (monthly): € 50
General costs of living (monthly): € 500
Costs of visa: € 400
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation of 500 AUD per month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Too little, I taught is was the same as in the Netherlands, even a little more open. This is the case at certain parts of Australia, bet certainly not in the Sutherland Shire. The communities here are very close and for me that was a bit of a culture shock.
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: leon.280@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Living in Sydney is really expensive, accommodation and other expenses are really high. Take a look at your bank account before going to Australia.

Go to Australia! The country is awesome!

Be no Dutchie, if someone asks you how you feel, tell them you’re fine, even if someone just cut off your leg.

Alcohol is really expensive. If you do buy alcohol, buy it at Dan Murphy, otherwise you’ll pay way too much.

Absolutely take some time to travel Australia, you only won’t have enough time to see everything you would like to see.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Blue Mountains NP and Royal NP are two beautiful National Parks to visit.

The Rocks, Darling Harbour and Bondi Beach.

Visit a game of the Cronulla Sharks.

The coffee at Grind is very good!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link