Amazing Asia Tours / ThailandDirect

Placement organization

Name of organization: Amazing Asia Tours / ThailandDirect
Town/city: Bangkok
Country: Thailand
Website: http://www.thailanddirect.nl

Name of student: Merijn Mensink

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator
Organization’s activities: Amazing Asia Tours is an innovative DMC, located in Bangkok. We are an ATTA and TAT licensed company. The company was founded in 2002 by General Manager Roeland Wassink. Nowadays he runs the company together with Marketing and Sales Manager Rutger Olthoff.

Our main office is located at the Eastin Makkasan Bangkok Hotel. Amazing Asia Tours arranges inbound and outbound services. Our main focus is the inbound Dutch market. We arrange hotels, tours and transfers for many foreign tour companies, like 333TRAVEL. Since 2012 we decided to focus more on direct sales. Therefore we launched a new website, www.thailanddirect.nl. We also have 6 tour counters in hotels where we sell day trips, transfers and holiday packages.

Target group of the organization: all kind of tourists (online / offline )
Company culture: Informal atmosphere. Dutch management. Back-office with Thai and Dutch colleagues.
Number of employees: 15
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? product development, sales, marketing.
Brief description of your daily activities: Back office: Updating website, HTML, writing blogs (dutch), WordPress, Social Media, Make quotations, tailor-made itinerary’s, working on company assignment.
Front office: Selling tours to customers, give information to customers, call to customers, entering hotel contracts.

Brief description of your company assignment: The implementation of TripAdvisor in the travel industry.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Supervision is reasonable, but you have to be very independent.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, adaptable, sociable, assertive, representable
Additional company requirements for this placement? SEO, writing skills (dutch/english), MS Office, WordPress, HTML
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch, advanced/near native speaker

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? The company arranged it
How did you go to work every day? by foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? yes, ED visa (Multiple entries)
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Royal Thai Consulate Amsterdam. The company will send you some required forms
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 5 days
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? 4 months

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? not necessary

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 600-800
Accommodation (monthly): € € +/- 90-115 (depends on your electricity/water usage)
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: € 140
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation: max. 5000 Baht (+/- € 115)
Company phone

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
In the NHTV library you can find some books about cultures in Thailand / Asia.
Internet forums about Thailand
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No. Adapting to the Thai culture was quite easy

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Before you start with the internship, it is convenient that you know the basics of the tourist destinations in Thailand.

To apply for a ED visa, I recommend to go to the Royal Thai Consulate in Amsterdam. (Herengracht)
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: You can go to the beach when you’re off in the weekends. (Hua Hin/Pattaya)
Go to the cinema when the weather is bad. It’s really cheap!
Recommended nightlife areas in Bangkok: Khao San Road, Silom, Sukhumvit

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link