All Alaska Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: All Alaska Tours
Town/city: Anchorage
Country: United States of America
Website: http://alaskatours.com

Student

Name of student: Robert Geerts

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Travel Agency
Organization’s activities: Selling package trips & loose components as hotels, transfers, excursions to both consumers and tour operators.
Target group of the organization: Tour operators and travelers directly
Company culture: It is quite informal, a bit as we are used to in the Netherlands. It is only a small company and every department has a staff of 2-4 people and a manager.
Number of employees: 14
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Product & reservations
Brief description of your daily activities: Preparing documents for the travelers, enter reservations into the system, sending invoices, checking availability with vendors.
Brief description of your company assignment: Doing research on the Dutch tour operators who are clients, what they sell and if we have something to offer that would be perfect for them to sell, and write them recommendations.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: the general manager is the official supervisor, but I am being supervised by the managers of the departments im working for mostly.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, stress-proof
Additional company requirements for this placement? Basic knowledge of MS Office
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch is recommended

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? company
How did you go to work every day? bicycle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? yes, J1
Do you need a work permit? Included in the visa
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Company assists with this
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? +- 3 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? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1000
Accommodation (monthly): € 400-500
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € Depends how smart you shop, it’s quite expensive here
Costs of visa: € 1000+
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Compensation of $1800 per month

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Nothing
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: robert_geerts_1@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Start getting your Visa in time, it really takes up to 3 months.

Don’t let the $1800 per month be your motivation, you probably end up with 0 after rent, flight, visa and food.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The company provides opportunities to do free tours, so called familiarity trips.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link