American Adventure Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: American Adventure Tours
Town/city: Hollywood, Florida
Country: United States of America
Website: http://www.aattours.com

Student

Name of student: Bart Mekes

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Organizing tours in mainly North America, as well as in Central and South America. Also recently added the rental of luxury villas via www.vipvillasoftheworld.com
Target group of the organization: European Market (Mainly Swiss, Hungarian and Dutch)
Company culture: Informal working environment. Student in this company is seen as a regular employee with a lot of responsibilities.
Number of employees: 4 + 1 intern
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Operations / Product Development / Marketing / IT
Brief description of your daily activities: Search and Contact hotels, create tour guide packages, create and confirm rooming lists, make optional excursion reservations, create financial overviews, post articles on the villa website, add villas on the website, assist with operations.
Brief description of your company assignment: My assignment was to make a Strategic Marketing and Communication plan for VIP Villas of the World
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My Supervisor is Juliana, she is really friendly and explains everything. You can ask her everything and will occasionally ask for your help as well. A pleasure to work with!

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, Responsible, Accurate, taking Initiative, Stress-proof
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word / Excel / Outlook / Internet (/ HTML / SEO: not needed but an advantage)
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Any other language is an advantage

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself : www.easyroommate.com
How did you go to work every day? Bicycle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes,J-1 exchange visitor visa
Do you need a work permit? Yes, included in visa
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I arranged it via http://education.kilroyworld.nl/
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 2 months
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): € 700,00
Accommodation (monthly): € 460,00 (USD 600,00)
Local transport (monthly): € 0,00
General costs of living (monthly): € 540,00 (USD 700,00)
Costs of visa: € 1200,00
Costs of work permit: € included in visa
What did the company pay for/to you? USD 500,00 for housing

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? No, but not knowing Spanish is a slight disadvantage even though it is the USA a lot of people in this area do not speak English.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 090369@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Spend your weekends well! These are the opportunities to see a lot of places in either Florida or the rest of the USA. You will learn and get to know a lot (both in and outside the organization) But most important of all, do not forget to Enjoy!!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: • Hollywood
• Miami
• Fort Lauderdale
• Key West ( Pirates and Parties )
• Everglades (Go to Coopertown, less touristic)
• Sawgrass Mills Mall & Aventura Mall (both in top 10 of biggest malls in the US | Sawgrass -> Outlet Mall)

You will not have enough time to explore everything around, as there is so much to do. Just do what you like and what you feel good with. Some people like the beaches where other people like shopping or nature. Ask people on the street where to go and what to see. Everyone here talks to random people on the street so they will be happy to answer your questions.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link