Khiri Travel

Placement organization

Name of organization: Khiri Travel
Town/city: Nonthaburi, Bangkok
Country: Thailand
Website: http://khiri.com

Name of student: Charlotte Bodlaender

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: B2B Travel company, specializes in offering inbound tours to international tour operators.
Organization’s activities: Khiri Travel delivers on its promise of personal attention to its clients and putting travellers at the centre of its operations. Khiri offers a variety of creative products: adventurous small group journeys; uniquely customizable tours with guaranteed departures; tailor-made programs; self-drive tours; special interest tours; educational travel as well as very high-end journeys including private jets and special arranged VIP encounters.
Target group of the organization: Khiri Travel targets worldwide (local) travel agents that already are or are willing to sell tours in Southeast Asia.
Company culture: Informal and open minded
Number of employees: Khiri Travel employs approximately 120 permanent staff and engages over 200 guides throughout the region.
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Marketing Department
Brief description of your daily activities: Khiri.com Trade Log In
– Create overview of current features
– Create overview of current uploads
– Extend & create picture databases
– Create country documents (Practical information & Destination information) on Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia
– Crisis communication plan
– SOP on using the Trade Log In (marketing staff & Khiri Travel mangers)
– Sustainability section

Khiri Travel assignment: Investigate what features should be added/explored to the system. Competitions analysis, wish list for agents, wish list for Khiri Management.

Social Media
– Facebook, Google+, Twitter
– Interaction

Khiri Brand Update
– Assist in creating new brand material (letterhead, business card, e-signature, header/footer, etc.)
– Assist in distributing new brand material

ownCloud file sharing
– Create a file tree
– Select & organize documents
– Upload documents
– Create an overview of permissions
– Create SOP’s on the picture database

Miscellaneous
– Assist in other marketing related work
– Translate PR’s, work with design programs etc.

Tradeshows
Brief description of your company assignment: Extend the agent portal on the khiri.com website. This is the back-end for our clients with lots of potential. I will research on the needs of travel agents. The options WordPress provides us with, plus Khriri Travel’s communication needs and match all in a straightforward. User friendly and comprehensive agent portal. Creating SOP’s and training of Khiri staff will also be a part of this.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I am very happy with the supervision I get from Khiri Travel. My coordinator, Els van Veelen (Marketing Manager Khiri Group) is very nice and is always willing to help me.
Every morning we have a meeting. Then we discuss what my activities are for that day.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, Flexible, Creative, Proactive, Technical
Additional company requirements for this placement? Writing Skills, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, SEO, WordPress
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Plane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Company
How did you go to work every day? Taxi (car)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Non-Immigrant ED – Single Entry
Do you need a work permit? This week I tried to extend my visa. There were a lot of problems. The conclusion of this is that I need a work permit (and some other documents) to extend my visa, something which can not be arranged. A big problem. This means that I have to go to Laos next week to get a new visa. Very bad arranged and informed by the Thai Embassy and Consular in The Netherlands.
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Embassy/Consulary and Company
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 2 months
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? Because I go often to Asia (and other continents), I had my vaccinations already. So I only had to get one vaccination, one week before I went to Bangkok.

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 I would not recommend this. Only if your English is very bad, but in general, I would say no.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 700
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 250
General costs of living (monthly): € 600
Costs of visa: € All costs to arrange (included confirmations letter etc and that I have to go to Laos etc.) 350 euros
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not really prepare myself for the country’s culture because I knew Asia well already,especially Thailand. This is my 4th time here, so I knew this culture already. Although, I read some books about this culture.
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: charlotte.bodlaender@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Recommendation to do, is to be open-minded if you want to get used quickly to this environment. Be sure that you know enough about this country and their culture. And also, be sure you know as much as you can about this company.
A suggestion to get in touch with other expats soon, is to take a look on the expat websites and Facebook.

What not to do… I do not really know. Just be sure you know enough about this country and try to accept the less nice things in the beginning of your internship. I am sure everybody can have a great time, but the big part of this is yourself, your mind-set.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: All the touristic things which are written on tourist websites, nice sky bars, restaurants, clubs and Khao San Road. Koh Kret is a nice village on a island near this office, and is nice to see by cycling or walking. Furthermore, book a trip to Ayutthayah, which is very close to Bangkok. You can see a lot of old temples at this place, by a tuktuk tour for example..
I would also suggest a stay on the beautiful islands of Bangkok. From this place, the islands on the east coast are the closest (Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao).

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link