CRS Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: CRS Tours
Town/city: San José
Country: Costa Rica
Website: http://nl.crstours.com/

Name of student: Marleen van Ras

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Selling tailor made packages for Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.
Target group of the organization: Everyone, besides low budget travelers.
Company culture: The company culture is quite informal. Everybody treats each other with great respect. But even though it’s not comment to build up friendships with colleagues. The contact is very business related.
You have a lot of freedom within the company. Your tasks will really depend on your interests. But make sure you take initiative if you want to work in more than one department, otherwise they will probably ask you to work in the sales department only.
Number of employees: 13 + 3 interns
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes, but you should negotiate about the agreements in advance. Because some interns got free accommodation and some not.

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? -sales department
-product department
-writing promotional texts
Brief description of your daily activities: -selling packages mainly to dutch clients
-writing texts for quotations
-writing texts for the dutch website
-finding new ways to improve certain things within the company, for example using new social media platforms or apps.
Brief description of your company assignment: I set up 2 charity projects and I wrote blogs about my trips to promote several destinations in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The easiest way to get supervision is by Skype chat. You can get as much supervision as you ask for. The director normally makes time for you a few times per week to talk in his office about your tasks.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, taking initiative, flexible (they might just decide that you have to start with new projects without finishing the previous projects). They will appreciate it when you let people know how you look at things. Show them your effort and input.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, E-mail and social media. Knowing how to maintain a website is a pré.
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: German and French are a pré.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? The company helped me with finding a host family.
How did you go to work every day? By foot (45 min) or by bus (also 45 min)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, you just need to leave the country for 72 hours every 3 months. And if you travel through the States you have to get a ESTA, which costs around 25 euros.
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? Yes
How long in advance? 2 months in advance

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? Yes
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? No, you will have enough time to learn Spanish while you are there. They don’t expect that you speak Spanish when you’ll arrive, even though it will be an advantage for you since not everyone speaks English.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 700
Accommodation (monthly): € 255
Local transport (monthly): € 30 (just traveling by bus in the weekends)
General costs of living (monthly): € It really depends on your lifestyle. Traveling by bus and staying in hostels is very cheap in Costa Rica. But supermarkets are approx. 4 times more expensive than in the Netherlands.
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’ve read some researches about the latin culture on the internet and I’ve spoken to some people who have been in Costa Rica before.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, the culture in Costa Rica is very laid-back. You might need to ask your colleagues 10 times for them to help you out. If you need urgent help, you can tell the director, so he or other colleagues will make time to help you.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 133182@nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: -Please take note that Costa Rica is a third-world country. That means that you can’t walk on the street when it’s dark (around 7 PM), in order not to get robbed. And when you walk on the street during the day, try not to look rich. So don’t wear jewelry, show your phone/wallet/other expensive looking things.
-Always wear sunscreen. The sun is much stronger than in Europe.
-When you have to take a taxi, make sure you have the exact amount of money you need to pay, otherwise they’ll tell you that they don’t have change.
-Never show people how rich you are, even when you think that you can trust them. The culture is very money-orientated so people can take advantage of you, or may be jealous.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: It’s very easy to travel by bus from San José. There are a lot of direct (and cheap) busses. Traveling to touristic destinations in Costa Rica might take longer than you expect, sometimes up to a whole day, just one way. It’s because most roads are not paved in Costa Rica.
For more information about destinations in Costa Rica, check out the blogs at http://nl.crstours.com/.
And if you have any questions, feel free to contact me any time, I’ll be happy to help you!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link