CRS Tours

Placement organization

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

Name of student: Lois van Hattum

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: This tour operator consists op different departments. Sales, where the employees have contact with customers and create customized offers for them. Reservations, where the employees call the companies to make reservations for hotels, excursions etc. Compatibility, where the employees work on accountancy and make sure al payments are done correctly. Product, where the employees search for information about the products we sell and update rates. And Social Media, keeping channels like Facebook and Twitter alive.
Target group of the organization: Europe, United States
Company culture: Jan and his wife Lorena are the owners of CRS Tours. Carolina is the supervisor of the Sales team. She can be described as the helping hand of Jan. The company´s culture is very relaxed, but you do have to show initiative.
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? During my whole internship I was part of the Sales team. I attended Dutch and Belgian clients, but after a while also clients from the United States. Apart from that, I also worked a lot on the website, for example editing and translating texts.
Brief description of your daily activities: – attending clients and creating customized offers for them
– making service confirmations once the clients have booked
– updating packages; quotes, Word documents and the website

Brief description of your company assignment: CRS Tours stands for ¨Costa Rica Specialized Tours¨, but the company also offers some journeys to Nicaragua and Panama. However, these journeys hardly get sold. On the one side this is quite logical, since the company is located in Costa Rica and is especially specialized in this country. Anyhow, it is quite a disappointment that in spite of the offer, such few trips to these bordering countries are booked. CRS Tours would like to see this change and it is hoping that through product development it is possible to raise the turnover. Because of my travel experience in Nicaragua, I would like to develop a product for this country. Meanwhile, I have stayed in Nicaragua for two months in total and I have visited 7 provinces in the west of the country. Except for Corn Island, I have visited all Nicaraguan destinations that CRS Tours offers.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Mostly you will be supervised by Carolina, who is also part of the Sales team. She will check your work before you send it to the clients. You have to keep reminding her that you have some work ready. Of course, you will also have conversations with Jan. This is not something scheduled, but if you want to talk, you are always welcome to come to his office. You have a lot of responsibility, but you also get a lot of trust. Jan likes it when you take initiative.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, organized, customer friendly, flexible, stress-proof
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? The agency arranged a host family for me ($350 per month).
How did you go to work every day? I had to walk 15 minutes.

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, but you need an ESTA if you are traveling through the United States.
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: On the internet
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? One month
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? I recommend you to go to a travel clinic a few months before your trip.

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? It is not necessary to be able to speak Spanish, but it will be very much appreciated. You have to speak at least English.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € €1200
Accommodation (monthly): € €280
Local transport (monthly): € €7: average price for a busticket to a touristic destination. €0.50: average price for a ride with a local city bus.
General costs of living (monthly): € €80
Costs of visa: € ESTA costs $14/€11.
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? The company does not provide any financial compensation.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
The culture in Costa Rica is quite Western, also because the country is quite developed and modern in contrary to the rest of Latin-America. I didn´t really prepare for this.
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: 131613@nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do not go out on your own at night (it will get dark at around 17.30hrs), especially not in the center of San José, which is 20 minutes away from the company by bus. This is also a place where you will see quite a lot of homeless people sleeping on the streets, or begging people. If you take a taxi, take a professional red one and always sit in the back. It´s very important to just enjoy!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The company is located 20 minutes by bus from the city center. Here you have a lot of shops, a theatre, museum etc. Also you can go to a shopping mall (Multiplaza) in Escazú, half an hour from the center. Here you will find very popular shops like Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka and Forever 21. You can also go to the cinema there. From the center of San José you can take all buses to touristic destinations like Manuel Antonio and Puerto Viejo. Also, here you will find the Tica Bus station to go to Nicaragua or Panama, since you have to leave the country every three months.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link