Caribbean Tourism Organization

Placement organization

Name of organization: Caribbean Tourism Organization
Town/city: Bridgetown, St. Michael
Country: Barbados
Website: http://www.onecaribbean.org

Student

Name of student: Stéphanie van den Bosch

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2011-2012

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: NGO
Organization’s activities: CTO will create and manage the partnerships necessary to increase the purchase of travel to and within the Caribbean that results in sustainable economic and social benefits for our people. The CTO comprises 32 member countries, including English, French, Spanish and Dutch countries and territories, as well as private sector allied members. These include the Caribbean Hotel Association, companies, organizations and persons providing products and services to the Caribbean tourism industry.
Target group of the organization: Potential tourists worldwide
Company culture: Everybody is friendly. There is always time for a nice talk and people laugh all the time. The working atmosphere in the office is very informal. There is a hierarchical structure but you don’t feel that, except for meetings. As an intern I was treated like everyone else.
Number of employees: 24 at the office in Barbados
Dress code: formal, casual on Fridays
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? CTO has several different departments in different countries. The headquarters in Barbados is responsible for Human Resources, Communications, Research and Finance. The London office is responsible for marketing in Europe. The New York office is responsible for marketing in North-America. I worked in Research and Information Technology
Brief description of your daily activities: My workday mainly consisted of working on my research assignment. Furthermore I was able to visit the human resource conference and worked as a volunteer at the Caribbean week in New York City.
Brief description of your company assignment: Look at why tourist expenditures have decreased over the past few years whilst tourism arrivals keep increasing
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor was not present many weeks during my internship. He agreed on anything and did not expect too much from my side. I wished it was a bit more challenging and it would have been nice to have received more feedback

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? You have to be able to adapt yourself to a different culture ad different work attitude. Everybody is very easy going, laid back and relaxed. You should be social, flexible and you need to have the ability to improvise and take your own initiative. You need to be able to work independently as well.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Internet
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? Via previous students and the company. I first lived in an apartment which was arranged via a contact of my company supervisor but after the company moved to another building I lived with a Canadian family because it was more convenient location wise.
How did you go to work every day? First I walked every day, sometimes I took the bus, sometimes a colleague took me or the people of the Canadian family I lived with brought me to the office and picked me up.

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, but it is wise to take a letter of the company before arriving in Barbados as evidence that you will be an intern for 25 weeks additional to your placement agreement.
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? Be sure to take protection for mosquito’s since the dengue virus can be spread by them.

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): € 750,00
Accommodation (monthly): € 500,00
Local transport (monthly): € 50,00
General costs of living (monthly): € 200,00
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Nothing

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 think it definitely did. The work attitude at the company was very laid back which did not always motivate me. If people around you are very relaxed and not working hard this can influence your own performance. Furthermore I had to get used to the different culture which took quite some energy. Barbados is still a developing country so very different compared to home. Being a young white girl between all these black people was something I had to get used to as well.

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: For further information about my stay and experience don’t hesitate to ask any questions to me
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The beaches are great and visiting Harrison’s cave is a must!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link