Intelligent Travel Solutions

Placement organization

Name of organization: Intelligent Travel Solutions
Town/city: Salvador da Bahía
Country: Brazilië
Website: http://www.discoverbrazil.com

Name of student: Thijs Schepers

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Online Travel Agency
Organization’s activities: Mainly to sell personalized packages to and through South-America with a main focus on Brazil. In general to clients who have a significant budget.
Target group of the organization: Travellers to South-America and particularly Brazil with a decent budget
Company culture: Years ago there used to work 15+ Travel Consultants full time selling packages and making big money. Therefore the director decided to give all the responsibilities to his employees, and focus on other jobs himself. Though that’s the point where it went wrong. Many employees left in the years after and in the beginning of this year the last 2 Travel Consultants and the Operations Manager left the company.

Currently we’re in the office with the Director, 1 Finance manager, 1 hired Travel Consultant another intern who will start to work as a Travel Consultant and I, as an assistent to the Travel Consultants). However in the near future there might start several new employees to go back to the sales level of the ”Golden Years”.

As it is an online travel agency and there is no contact with clients or suppliers the atmosphere is very informal in terms of clothing. However when it comes to meetings, it’s way more formal.
Number of employees: 4 others including the director. though we work together with Intelligent Web Solutions for SEO and the Website. They have 4 employees
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? There have not been made special agreements

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Sales & Marketing department.
Brief description of your daily activities: I am working for a month now solely on an excel spreadsheet that is derived from the company’s system and which consists the information & rates of all our Hotels, Activties & Transfers in South-America. It’s not a very educational task, but it has to be done and it requires a lot of determination to finish it. Before that I practically entered rates in the system & I wrote a few website texts. I think and I hope that I will learn more during the 2nd part of my internship.
Brief description of your company assignment: Conduct a Custumer Satisfaction Survey among all clients from 2014.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor was the Operations Manager, but she left the company 3 weeks after I started. The hired Travel Consultant replaced her as my supervisor.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? flexible, stress proof,
Additional company requirements for this placement? Microsoft Office (especially excel), company system is Trabacus
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Intermediate or Advanced Brazilian-Portuguese would be very helpful in daily life, but is not essential. for the company

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: By plane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Via www.airbnb.com
How did you go to work every day? By Bus, no other possibility.

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? Yes
How long in advance? Started about one month before departure and the last one 3 days before departure

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? Definitely

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800-1000
Accommodation (monthly): € 300
Local transport (monthly): € 40-50
General costs of living (monthly): € 300-400 (supermarkets aren’t as cheap as expected)
Costs of visa: € 0 for a tourism visa for 3 months, though each day extra after 3 months means a fine of 8.5 Brazilian Reais (Little less than 3 euro)
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? Nothing.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
We have been in Brazil on a Field Trip less than a year earlier so I didn’t prepare much as I expected it to be the same, Though the Field Trip showed the more beautful side of the country and living here for a while shows the extreme and shocking poverty side of the country. There have been moments that I nearly had to throw when I saw people living in terrible (medical) conditions. There is however no way to prepare for it. In the 2 months that I have been here now, I didn’t experience any criminal activit, though it’s the most criminal city of Brazil.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, it’s been very difficult for me to get used to the poverty as it really broke me up in the beginning. Therefore I started to do voluntary work in the weekend and that gave me a more comfortable feeling. It doesn’t negatively influence my ability to concentrate anymore.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 122398@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Don’t enter a Favela on your own, that would be my first recommendation. People might underestimate the danger, but there are on average 4-5 people murdered each day in the Favela’s of Salvador. If you want to know specific information please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The historical center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and very unique to see. The coastline is beautiful and one of the world’s best beaches is located in Salvador. Moreover a visit to one of the two professional football teams is a must if you like football. A return ticket by plane to Rio will cost you about 150-200 euro as they don’t have budget airlines as Ryanair here.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link