Alegria Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: Alegria Tours
Town/city: Gerona
Country: Spanje
Website: http://www.alegriatours.com

Name of student: Levie Leyting

Specialist area: TM
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Authentic & unique custom group travel to Europe.
Target group of the organization: Mainly Philippines and Americans
Company culture: Fiona de Romijn – Managing Director
Marco Gonkel – Commercial Director
Number of employees: 2
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Allround. I do everything from A to Z.
Brief description of your daily activities: At Alegria Tours you learn everything about being a Tour operator/Tour leader.
Design custom made tours.
Call or e-mail restaurants, hotels or excursions for a tour.
Accompany your clients on their trip and be a real tour leader.

Brief description of your company assignment: I do not have an company assignment, although I do get a lot of small assignments from my boss like:
– Design a daytour in Girona. (route, entrances, information, tour leader components)
– Observe/talk to guides, tourists, tour leaders in Girona and make an evaluation.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: At the office I’m sitting with my boss Fiona. Marc is downstairs in his office.
We work in a small room, me and Fiona are sitting opposite of each other.

They really want to learn you a lot and they expect you to communicate with them. They will not give you the complete information about an assignment for a client. They want you to think for yourself first, if you don’t know what to do, you have to ask them. They are willing to answer and they are very kind people.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, stress-proof, sociable
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS office
English: Intermediate
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German:
Italian:
Other languages: English is very important. But also a little bit of spanish could be helpfull as you need to call or e-mail a lot of companies in Spain.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Company arranged my room in the city centre of Girona
How did you go to work every day? Bicycle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? no
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? 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? Spanish could be very helpfull, bit is not necessary.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 80
Accommodation (monthly): € 0 (my room costs €250 monthly)
Local transport (monthly): € No local transport needed
General costs of living (monthly): € 100 – 150 (depends on what you buy)
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? My company paid my accomodation.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I bought a travelguide about Spain and a little languageguide from van Dale. (hoe & wat)
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes my rythme was different and my eating pattern changed.

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: If you don’t want to work a lot at the office, you are not interested in Alegria Tours.

If you want to learn a lot about tours from A to Z, you should really apply here.

It is a small company, that is one of the reasons why you can learn so much here. You get the change to do everything what needs to be done. You are not doing the same work every day.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There are a lot of different activities planned in this beautiful city. Good place to shop and to go out.

Don’t forget to try König. A popular restaurant with the best food for the best price. Especialy the patatas bravas.

With the bus or train a good conection to Barcelona or other places. For the beach you could better use a car.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link