EcoColors tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EcoColors tours
Town/city: Cancun
Country: Mexico
Website: http://www.ecotravelmexico.com

Name of student: Lisanne Post

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator
Organization’s activities: The company offers and operate one-day and mult-day tours in Mexico, Guatemale and Belize.
Target group of the organization: Everyone who is interested in culture, nature and adventure
Company culture: The company is small and therefore everyone knows eath other. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help you out.
Number of employees: 15-20
Dress code: uniform
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Operations
Brief description of your daily activities: I did a lot of different projects during my internship:
– updating the manual for reservations and operations
– contacting providers of different activities to ask for prices
– contacting hotels and hostels for new contracts
– making hotel reservations for groups
– updating all the formats and documents for the staff in the Marina
– Making a catalogo with excurcions and activities

Brief description of your company assignment: I did a satisfaction inventory for one of the tours!
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The manager of the operations area Mariza was my supervisor. She is very friendly and willing to help but she is normally really busy. I also worked a lot with Monserrat who also supervised me a lot.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Idependent, teamplayer, sociable, able to make priorities, able to show a lot of self-initiative
Additional company requirements for this placement? Writing Skills, Excel
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French: Basic
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? previous student
How did you go to work every day? bus

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? 1 month

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? Yes, it is necessary to speak already a bit spanish

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € around €700
Accommodation (monthly): € €180
Local transport (monthly): € €30
General costs of living (monthly): € Don’t know but probably more then €400
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? The company pays you $100 usd every 2 weeks.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I talked with the previous students that also did their internship at EcoColors. And I did some research on internet.
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: lisannepost65@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I felt very safe in Cancún, and also in the other places of Mexico.
I lived in Downtown Cancún and I can really recommend it, You can feel and see more of the mexican culture.
The beaches in the hotelzone are amazing and if you search good you can even find you own private beach

Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Make the time to visit a lot of places! Mexico is so big and beautiful
Visit:
Playa del Carmen
Holbox
Isla mujeres
Tulum

Al bit further away:
Mérida
San cristobal

Meet new people! Taste the real mexican food! Search for the best beaches! And enjoy every minute of your stay!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link