De Palm Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: De Palm Tours
Town/city: Oranjestad
Country: Centraal Amerika & Caribbean
Website:

Name of student: Desiree Simek

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Company
Organization’s activities: The DMS department from De Palm Tours is handling the North American, Latin American and European MICE market. Incentive groups that are coming to Aruba is who they are taking care of. This work includes setting up the contract, welcoming the group at the airport, hosting activities for them, arranging events, invoicing, etc.
Target group of the organization: MICE market (North & South America mainly)
Company culture: The company culture is very informal and the atmosphere is relaxed among the employees. De Palm Tours can be considered as one big family. They have an open-door policy and everyone is reachable for each other at any time.
Number of employees: 3
Dress code: uniform
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? n/a

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? DMS (Destination Management Services)
Brief description of your daily activities: – keeping the daily schedule up-to-date
– creating flight manifests, contracts, service supplements and day-by-day programs
– meet&greet groups at the airport
– dispatch groups to activities
– follow up on programs with clients
– host tours, activities, dine-arounds
– answer emails, phone calls
Brief description of your company assignment: De Palm DMS recently launched their new website. It was my tasks to make a competitive website analysis. I compared it to the website of their biggest competitor on the island.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor was a very experienced woman and I got the chance to learn a lot from her. Nevertheless, we had some very busy months, during which she barely had time for me. Moreover I had a very good relationship to my colleague, who also taught me very much. In general, due to the open-door policy and the relaxed atmosphere in the office I was always able to ask questions.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? flexible, very stress resistant, good communication skills, teamplayer, creative, spontanious
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, Outlook
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch is of great advantage

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? myself
How did you go to work every day? bycicle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? no
Do you need a work permit? yes, the company arranged it for me
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? yes, Spanish (for those who do not speak this language)

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 850
Accommodation (monthly): € 400
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? financial compensation, transportation surcharge

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Not at all, I travelled there blindly
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Many different cultures clash when working in DMS (Aruban culture, North American & South American culture, European culture). One should be flexible and able to adapt to the differences

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: SimekDesiree@gmx.de

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Be open and sociable when coming to Aruba.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Tons of places to have fun. On each day of the week there is something to do.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link