De Palm Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: De Palm Tours
Town/city: Oranjestad
Country: Nederlandse Antillen
Website:

Name of student: Sylvana van der Struis

Specialist area: TM
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Arranging Transfers for leisure and business travel
Arranging activities such as Jeep Tours, Bus tours, Underwater Tours, Snorkeling Tours etc
Composing group programs for groups and incentives
Target group of the organization: Leisure, business groups
Company culture: The companies culture is not that different from Holland.

I noticed that the hierarchy is indeed a bit different, because the management talks to you in a different way. If they want you to do something they say for example: Put in the schedule, instead of: Can you put this in the schedule for me? This was a little bit strange for me, but after a few weeks I got used to it. This is just the way that management talks to their employees in Aruba. Furthermore the atmosphere in the office was quite informal.
Number of employees: Approximately 300
Dress code: uniform
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I was working in the DMS Department. This is actually the department that handles the groups that are coming to Aruba because of business motives. The most groups were incentive groups, for example from companies as Mastercard or Adecco. Our department could also be called: group sales or group operations.
Brief description of your daily activities: My daily activities were:

Making function sheets (Scheme with activities of the groups)
Making flight manifest (Scheme with flight numbers and number of guests that are coming in)
Making adjustments to daily schedule
Making reservations for groups, for example for restaurant when they have dine arounds.
Answering phone/ emails
Dispatch groups from hotel to activities
Meet and greet at the airport when groups arrive

Brief description of your company assignment: I had to make a competitive analysis for my department, DMS.
I compared our department with two other destination management companies on Aruba. Also I described a possible positioning strategy for DMS De Palm Tours.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Because the DMS Department had a completely new management at the time that I came in, there was a lot of stress and the management had to deal with a lot of new things. For me, it felt a little bit like my supervisor did not have much time to supervise me during my internship, because she had a lot of stuff to do herself. I think she was too busy to accompany me, and as a result I had to seek out a lot of things myself.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, stress proof, creative, flexible, result oriented
Additional company requirements for this placement? No
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German: Basic
Italian: Basic
Other languages: Only English and Spanish were important.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane, approximately 10 hour flight

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself, I searched on the internet and saw that a lot of students stay at Perle D’or
How did you go to work every day? By car (rented)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? Yes, in Holland had to arrange a certificate of good conduct and a birth certificate. In Aruba I had to arrange a personal number.
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?

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? Maybe it is usefull to take a Spanish course If you don’t speak this language yet. You have to deal with a lot of Latin American groups.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 820
Accommodation (monthly): € 400
Local transport (monthly): € 350
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € 20
What did the company pay for/to you? I got a compensation of 450 euros per month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I have been on vacations to Aruba for fourteen times, so I already knew the countries culture.

The culture in Aruba is not that different than the culture in Holland, so it is not quite necessary to prepare.

What is though different than in Holland, is that everybody is more relaxed and behaves more relaxed when they are working. I had to get used to the way of working here in Aruba, because in Holland almost everybody is hurrying.
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: sylvanavanderstruis@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I don’t have any recommendations on what to do or what not to do.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There are enough possibilities for leisure. There are a lot of beautiful white sandy beaches. There are a lot of swimming possibilities, and there are a lot of possibilities to go out in the weekend as well.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link