CBT-I and CBT-IRDC

Placement organization

Name of organization: CBT-I and CBT-IRDC
Town/city: Chiang Mai
Country: Thailand
Website: http://www.cbt-i.org

Student

Name of student: Anouk van Putten

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: NGO
Organization’s activities: Providing Community Based Tourism trainings to communities and to other interested stakeholders in Asia. Researching and developing CBT, promoting communities to tour operators, facilitate cooperation among stakeholders to support CBT and the organisation acts as a Thai CBT information centre.
Target group of the organization: Tour Operators interested in CBT and independent travellers
Company culture: Thai people are always very friendly and helpful, also in this organisation. The hierarchy is more visible than in the Netherlands but you can always ask anything. You will be treated as every other employee. Don’t expect a clear planning or structure, be really flexible and work independent.
Number of employees: 10
Dress code: casual (but knees and shoulders covered)
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Marketing, Finance, Training, Researching, Public Relations. I worked in Marketing
Brief description of your daily activities: Marketing, visiting villages, interviewing stakeholders, helping to organise conferences, writing texts for the websites of CBT-I and CBT-IRDC, etc…
Brief description of your company assignment: Since CBT-I started a new organisation with Payap university called CBT-IRDC (Community Based Tourism – International Research for Development centre). I mainly worked there and I build up their website and made their strategic marketing plan.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision was very good. You have to be able to work independent but if you have questions, you can ask everything and I had regular evaluation meetings (because my supervisor was from CBT-IRDC and was Dutch so I was lucky with more structure and clarity)

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, very flexible, patient and social
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Internet, Power Point (Photoshop, excel and making videos is a plus but not at all required)
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? Myself, but colleagues are willing to help
How did you go to work every day? Red Car (kind of bus which is the common transportation in Chiang Mai)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I went to the Thai embassy in The Hague and if you have all the required documents (because I am Dutch I needed to hand in my passport, copy of passport, pass photo, invitation letter, letter of guaranty) you can go to the embassy and three working days later I could pick up my visa.
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes

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? I do study Thai next to my work because I like it

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1000,00
Accommodation (monthly): € 100,00 (I found something very cheap)
Local transport (monthly): € 30,00
General costs of living (monthly): € 300,00 (but you can live cheaper)
How long in advance did you apply for visa 2 months
Costs of visa: € 55,00 (ED multiple entry visa)
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Sometimes a company dinner and mostly transportation and accommodation during field trips

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, I a very positive way. No stress, no worries. A small struggle can be that not all the colleges speak good English and Thai people don’t like future planning you need to be flexible but because everybody is so friendly, it only influenced me in a positive way. You get used to the cultural differences if you accept them.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 101070@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: There are some small but important rules in Thailand. The most important ones are: taking of your shoes inside a house/ temple etc. dress appropriately outside of touristic areas and especially in temples, don’t point with your feet at something and don’t show the back of your feed when sitting on the ground for example and don’t become angry because than you “lose face” There are more small cultural differences which you need to know. I advise to read (on internet/ the lonely planet) about cultural differences before going here
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Chiang Mai is a touristic city with a lot of backpackers and Thai students (depending on the area). The city has a lot of nice leisure possibilities such as different markets and temples, national parks, a waterfall, a lake, top of the hill “Doi Suthep”, boxing shows, and lots of bars, restaurants and cafés with local and western food and drinks. Also outside of Chiang Mai there is easy transportation to do adventurous activities such as hiking, sip lines, there is also a nigh safari, elephant riding and the nicest activity of the year: the “Songran”: the water festival to celebrate the Thai new year. Enough things to do to fill every weekend with a new trip!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link