Panorama Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: Panorama Tours
Town/city: Kuala Lumpur
Country: Maleisië
Website: http://panorama-tours.com.my/

Name of student: Kristel Hogeboom

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: tour operator
Organization’s activities: INBOUND TRAVEL : group round trips / FIT (self drive) tours

OUTBOUND TRAVEL : corporate incentive, series / FIT Tours, airlines ticketing

Target group of the organization: Outbound:Malaysia Inbound: Europe and ASEAN
Company culture: There is a hierarchy within this company, which is normal in Malaysia. Depending on which department you work, it is more or less. At the inbound department, you work mostly with Muslims, who are mostly work as a family. At the outbound department there are Chinese-Malays working, who are more in their-selves, do not communicate well and there is a high hierarchy. I did both departments, for 2,5 months, but make sure you work at the inbound department, to make sure you learn something. I had a western supervisor at the Inbound department, who learned me a lot work-based. At the outbound, I learned to deal with the intercultural communication, which was also a good experience after all.
Number of employees: 30
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? No, because I supposed to work at the Inbound for 5 months. But I didn’t make any problems to move to another department for 2,5 months.

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I have been working for 2,5 months at the Outbound department. I was supposed to work at the Inbound department, but because it was busy, the big boss wanted me to work at the Outbound. As I have written before, there is a hierarchy, so if the boss says that, I will move there 1 minute later. I was ok with the agreement of 2,5 months there and then 2,5 months at the inbound, so I could experience both sides of this company.

FYI: At the outbound; we organize tours for Malay people to other countries. At the Inbound; we organize tours in Malaysia for other countries, coming here. For example: we work with TUI, so people who book a round trip with Arke or Kras, they come here, and we have arranged their trip.
Brief description of your daily activities: The most I have learned at the Inbound Department, so I will explain what I have done there:
-Assisting on the contact with TUI, as you speak Dutch, which is useful for the company.
-Collecting all the new hotel rates and trying to get the best ones: calling them to chase and sending all the emails out.
-Translating complaints or any Dutch letters to English
-Assisting operations
– Meeting up with (dutch) guests, who arrive in KL and doing a self-drive tour, or guided private tour. I met them in the hotels and gave them a briefing about the itinerary and what they could expect during their journey.
– You will get the chance to work as a tour leader during 14-16 days group round trips through Malaysia with Dutch guests. I got the chance to do 2 of these tours during my internship and 3 after my internship in summer. They probably need you also in summer, because that’s the high season for all the Dutch people. View on arke.nl, for the 2 different round trips we offer.

Brief description of your company assignment: I made an advisory on how they can anticipate on the European market. I analyzed several countries and gave recommendations on how they should communicate and how they could increase their business on this market.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervision at the Outbound department was very bad, almost no supervision. But at the Inbound, I had a very good and nice supervisor, Anita, who really helped me during my last 2,5 months internship. She learned me a lot and with her western mentality it was easy to work with/for her.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Open minded. Don’t have any expectations and you should easily fit in another culture, or at least, willing to fit in another culture.
Additional company requirements for this placement? No
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? The company provide something for you, read for more information below, but I finally arranged accommodation in 2 days myself, on the internet.
How did you go to work every day? From my condo, it’s a 20 minutes walk to the office.

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? 3 months

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, you can survive with intermediate to advanced English.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 600
Accommodation (monthly): € 220
Local transport (monthly): € 40
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? The company provides accommodation, but it takes 1,5 hours to get to work every day because of heavy traffic jam. It is far from the city, and you never know when the buses arrive.. There is no time schedule, so they are living their own life. The condo is nice, it has a swimming pool, but the area is very local. I moved out after 1,5 months, because I didn’t feel comfortable enough to live in a local area and the 3 hours of travelling every day was very tiring. I decided to move to the city, bukit bintang area, which is the most bustling area in KL. I have had a great time here and I recommend to rent something yourself directly and not try to live in the condo the company provides.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not read to much, I just went there as an open-minded person. In the beginning it was still hard to work with another culture. As I was used to travel in Asia, I still experienced it so different to work together with another culture. I would recommend to read something more about intercultural communication. My NHTV supervisor Brigitte Ars, really helped me to deal with this. She also mentioned the ‘High Context’ culture. Read and learn about this, to make sure you prepare yourself.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? I think it did. I don’t like hierarchy, but I had to follow this culture. Also the work performance here is different, as they are ‘a bit lazy’. In the beginning I scared them with taking initiative. I tried to act like they do, and that worked out.

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Respect the working environment. And enjoy the tours you are going to do. Being a tour leader is also a very good experience and you learn a lot, being responsible for 20 pax in the jungle. You have to be an enthusiastic person, with good presentation skills.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Kuala Lumpur is all about shopping malls, they say. Partly this is true, the city has loads of them! But there are also very nice bars, gyms, cinemas and outside KL there is enough to explore in the weekends. You can take a flight to Singapore for 20 euros one way (1hr flight) or take a bus which takes 5-6 hours from Kuala Lumpur. Also Pangkor Island is a 5 hours drive if you are looking for the Island Life.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link