Localista Travel

Placement organization

Name of organization: Localista Travel
Town/city: San Jose
Country: Costa Rica
Website: https://localistatravel.com

Student

Name of student: Geert Heres

Specialist area: Tourism Management (NL)
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Travel Agency
Organization’s activities: Making custom itineraries
Target group of the organization: middle income europian market and high income American market
Company culture: informal
Number of employees: 3
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?
reservations & operations

Brief description of your daily activities:
– responding emails
– basic office work
– updating prices
– making reservations
– writing itineraries

Brief description of your company assignment:
Marketing plan. I did research in how they can enter a market of high end clients.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Elizabeth is always kind and ready to help.
She is really busy so sometimes it takes long to respond to information request

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? sociable, flexible, independent
Additional company requirements for this placement? writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? previous students
How did you go to work every day? bus or uber

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

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800
Accommodation (monthly): € 340
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 700
Costs of visa: –
Costs of work permit: –
What did the company pay for/to you? financial compensation of 300 dollars a month

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I googled some basic information and bought a lonely planet
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? everything goes slower

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: geert_heres@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do:
Try to get the friday to work from home and go travel every weekend.
Stay near the student area in San Pedro, other parts of San Jose are boring or dangerous
Find a living arrangement with other students or expands so you have the same mindset
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Nicaragua, Puerto Viejo
go surf
bungee jumpen in monteverde
favorite destination: Uvita!!!

Media