ECEAT / Travelife

Placement organization

Name of organization: ECEAT / Travelife
Town/city: Amsterdam
Country: NL – Noord-Holland
Website: https://www.travelife.info/index_new.php?menu=home&lang=en#

Student

Name of student: Carolin Holtz
Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2020-2021

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tourism Certification company
Organization’s activities: – Providing coaching, training to Travelife members (webinars)
– online courses and maintenance (10 courses)
– Desk audit performance for coached companies (Travelife Partner, Travelife Certified)
– On-site audits conducted by third parties to verify sustainability practices at their internal management environment and partners
Target group of the organization: Tour operators and travel agents, DMCs
Company culture: Travelife was launched in 2007, an initiative dedicated to promoting sustainable practices within the travel and tourism industry. There are two separate but interrelated sustainability systems, aimed at travel companies and accommodations.

The Amsterdam team works together with multiple regional coaches, auditors, and other professionals with who you might be in contact.

The company’s structure is quite unorganized, but very internationally focused and open-minded.
Number of employees: 7
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 are no departments at Travelife. As an intern, you will assist in a variety of tasks depending on your expertise and skills.

Brief description of your daily activities: Your tasks will always be different, however, there are several recurring tasks for interns:
1. New Registration task: contacting newly registered companies on the platform, emailing, calling to see if they want to join Travelife
2. Translation: when you have additional language proficiencies than English, then you will be most likely translate online courses, documents, and the website
3. Research on companies attending tourism fair (ITB, WTM) > conducting sales calls
4. Support in social media related tasks (posts, captions)
5. Administrative tasks (update of manuals, writing templates, flyer, emailing)
6. Meeting with companies to introduce the Travelife Platform (Skype, Zoom)
Brief description of your company assignment: I conducted a market research analysis on how to promote Travelife successfully in the German market. This included a SWOT analysis, interviews, translations, and desk research on competitors.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: As an intern, you will be supervised by Chi Nguyen. She holds the whole team together, offers an open environment to express difficulties but also tries to bring some fun into the working environment. Note that she provides quite direct feedback and expects good results whenever you deliver a task.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? stress-proof, sociable, team player, independency
Additional company requirements for this placement? writing skills, MS office, zoom
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself through Kamernet
How did you go to work every day? bicycle or public transport (depending where you live in Amsterdam)

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? not necessary

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 60€
Accommodation (monthly): € 490€
Local transport (monthly): € 200€
General costs of living (monthly): € 300€ (corona times)
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation: 300€ monthly
Transportation reimbursement: all monthly
Energy (home office): 30€ monthly
Skype credits (oversea calling): 25€ monthly

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
No preparation needed.
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: carolin.holtz@web.de

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Take your task seriously, follow up with it and report it accordingly. Whenever you have questions, reach out to other interns or your company supervisor. Everyone is happy to help Share your ideas and opinions, they are highly valuable!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Amsterdam has plenty of things to do in terms of cultural activities and sightseeing. If you are more of a nature person, check out Amsterdam Bos and Diemer Bos to get away from the buzzing city.

Unfortunately, the office is located in an old building and is not taken care of. Due to the pandemic situation, we were in Home Office most of the time.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link