Absolute Groups & Incentives

Placement organization

Name of organization: Absolute Groups & Incentives
Town/city: Palma de Mallorca
Country: Spanje
Website: http://www.a-incentives.com

Name of student: Shannon de Kievit

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Company
Organization’s activities: As an incoming agent A-incentives provides services for clients from all over Europe. The company works together with companies such as TUI NL, de Reisbeleving, Diogenis Reizen, Unravel and Deloitte. Together they take care of the event for the final client. Absolute Groups & Incentives has a lot of final clients from insurance companies and employment agencies. A-incentives organizes the entire trip up to the airport. Such as: hotels, transfers, guides, activities and excursions, restaurants, meetings and conferences.

Due to the extensive experience in tourism and the MICE sector, A-incentives offers absolute professionalism and flexibility in planning, organising and implementing the event. In addition, Absolute Groups & Incentives has already had fifteen years of experience in the MICE sector
Target group of the organization: MICE – sector / Business Travelers
Company culture: Absolute Groups & Incentives consists an international team. Clients can be helped in five different languages: Spanish, English, German, Catalan and Dutch. The employees are highly qualified and well-practised to give advice to the clients. Furthermore the entire team consist of experts in Spanish logistics and local customs.

The team of A-incentives is very close and there is no mention of hierachy. There is an informal atmosphere in the office. The employees are having lunch together in the office or outside in a nice restaurant on the beach. If you have any problem or a question you can go straight to Elsa Fornes the owner of the company or Betty van Gent the founder of Absolute Groups & Incentives. They are both very friendly and always willing to help you with anything you need.

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? There is not one specific department where you are going to work. You perform various activities in and outside the office during your internship at Absolute Groups & Incentives.
Brief description of your daily activities: – Making offers for new clients;
– Making cost sheets next to the offer;
– Making preparations for incoming groups;
– Helping the colleagues with anything they need;
– Helping at the airport when groups arrive at the island;
– Place bus orders;
– Helping during events;
– Administrations activities.

Brief description of your company assignment: During my five months internship period I worked on an assessment about sustainable tourism and corporate social responsibility. In order to provide relevant information for Absolute Groups & Incentives about this subjects and advice the management team about potential possibilities for the future.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I really appreciated the help of Mrs. Wagenmakers my supervisor and the entire team of Absolute Groups & Incentives. My colleagues gave me in-time valuable instructions and thanks to them I fully enjoyed my internship on Mallorca.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Flexibele, stress-proof, teamplayer, creative, sociable and representable
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French: Basic
German: Intermediate
Italian: Basic
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Betty van Gent the founder helped me to arrange my accommodation
How did you go to work every day? By foot

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? Yes
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Yes, it is very handy. I recommend to do a Spanish course.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € €150,-
Accommodation (monthly): € €300,-
Local transport (monthly): € €0,-
General costs of living (monthly): € €200,-
Costs of visa: € €0,-
Costs of work permit: € €0,-
What did the company pay for/to you? I received a financial compensation of €200,- every month. If you make any work related costs during your internship, it will be paid by the company.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I looked for information on the internet. And since it was my second internship on the island, I was already familiar with the country’s culture.
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: 152093@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Mallorca is a very nice island. You can see and do a lot of different things during your internship. I reccomend you to travel as much as possible. Beautiful places to visit are: Valldemossa, Sóller, Cala Pi, Cala Blava and Es Trenc. It is also very nice to go to Ibiza during your placement, you can go by boat or plane very easily.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The beach of El Arenal is only 3 minutes away from the office. You can find many restaurants, bars and clubs in the same area. If you want to go for shopping, you can go to the city center of Palma de Mallorca. There are also nice shopping centers such as: Porto Pi, FAN and Festival Park.

During the summer months there is a lot to do in El Arenal. There are many young people, that come to this place to enjoy their summer holiday. During the summer months there are a lot of party’s, festivals and boatparty’s. In El Arenal there is also a waterpark were you can enjoy your day, named Agualand. Other fun places to visit during your placement are: Palma Aquarium and Tito’s a nightclub in Palma.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link