TCI Research

Placement organization

Name of organization: TCI Research
Town/city: Brussels
Country: België
Website:

Name of student: Kathrin Werder

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Research agency
Organization’s activities: – Attending international conferences like European Cities Marketing, PATA, UNWTO, client conferences, thematic tourism conferences, European Tourism Forums, the Federation General assembly and in the Global Forum of Tourism Statistics conference (OECD).
– preparing online questionnaires and doing the coding of interviews

Target group of the organization: hotels, tourism offices and companies who want to stay competitive and to make their destination brands stand out from the competition.
Company culture: formal
Number of employees: 4
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Research
Brief description of your daily activities: – Translating newsletters in English and german
– Doing the coding of interviews
– Checking the filters of questionnaires in several languages
– Sending questionnaires on Mailjet to the clients
– Weighting data on Sphinx

In general, long-term tasks were depended on TCI Research’s projects

One time, I had to look for information of the German Qualitätsmonitor, the other time I had to prepare a synthesis of a hotel and I had to look for comments on the Chinese platform Weibo to analyze their association with Sweden related to food.
Brief description of your company assignment: I had to examine travellers’ payment modes in several occasions, e.g. in restaurants, souvenir shops or for their accommodation to analyze the benefits and limitations to measure visitor spending. Moreover, I had to take the different credit card services into consideration and I had to compare them.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Even though my company supervisor was often away, I still had a good supervision. Whenever I had questions concerning my company assignments, I could ask the CEO and he gave me advice. When he was away I could send him an e-mail at any time and I did not have to wait for a long time to receive a reply.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independant, sociable, flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? Excel
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? internet
How did you go to work every day? public transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
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? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 130
Accommodation (monthly): € 420
Local transport (monthly): € 50
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation 250€

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I have friends in Brussels, so I asked them.
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: 151071@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I would recommend to do a city tour through Brussels and to go to the Atomium as well as to spend a lot of time at the Grand-Place since there are cultural festivities.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: – Grand-Place -city tour
– Atomium
– There are many fitness centers in Brussels
– cities like Oostende (coastside), Brugge and Antwerpen are not far away

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link