All Alaska Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: All Alaska Tours
Town/city: Anchorage
Country: United States of America
Website: http://www.alaskatours.com

Student

Name of student: Franziska Bach

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour Operator
Organization’s activities: Receptive tour operator for Alaska, Yukon, West Canada, West USA tourism industry
Target group of the organization: Tour operators & international travels
Company culture: Informal, I worked in the reservations department and product department and was treated like every other employee.
Number of employees: 15
Dress code: casual / formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Groups, Reservations/Operations, Product, Accounting, Sales. I worked in Reservations and Product (I’m still in the middle of my internship, so I don’t know if there are any other departments I will be working in)
Brief description of your daily activities: Entering reservations into the system, following up with and checking reservations, ordering brochures, creating travel documents and sending these out to clients (again, I’m just in the middle of my internship and the season is starting just now, so there will be a lot of other tasks I’m going to do).
Brief description of your company assignment: Creating an marketing advisory report to find out where the company’s current position is in the industry and come up with suitable recommendations.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Great

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Sociable, team player, stress-proof, initiating, independent
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel plus you will have to learn how to use the company’s booking and reservation system Softrip
English: Advanced
Spanish:

French:
German: Sufficient

Italian:
Other languages: Dutch sufficient

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I stayed at a hotel for the first few days. The company arranged a discounted rate so it was not that expensive. After a few days I found a room through the internet.
How did you go to work every day? By foot (10 mins)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? yes
Do you need a work permit? No, you got a visa which allows you to work for the specific company
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I already had a visa that covered the internship due to my semester in the US prior to the internship
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? n/a

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 200,00 (I was already in the US so I only needed a flight from Boston to Anchorage)
Accommodation (monthly): € 600,00
Local transport (monthly): € 0,00
General costs of living (monthly): € 200,00 (without rent – Alaska is quite expensive, so you just have to be smart with grocery shopping)
Costs of visa: € I already had a visa since my exchange prior to the internship was I the U.S. as well.
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? About USD 1800,00 per month (based on 40h week)

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I already did my exchange there
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Not at all. I had already lived in the U.S. before so I was used to the lifestyle. However, Alaska is still a lot different than the rest of the States

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 113194@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Email me!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Email me!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link