Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau

Placement organization

Name of organization: Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau
Town/city: Cancun
Country: Mexico
Website: http://cancun.travel/

Student

Name of student: Vera van der Jagt

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tourism Board
Organization’s activities: The placement organization ‘Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau is a local tourism organisation. Another name for the organisation is ‘Cancun CVB’, or in Spanish ´Cancun OVC´. It was created in 1996 in order to promote Cancun. The organisation interacts with key partners of different markets around the world in order to create and develop promotions, marketing and public relations activities. In this way it highlights Cancun’s values and offers to the world.
Target group of the organization: Different markets all over the world
Company culture: The employees of Cancun CVB are hard workers who have fun in their work. They are motivated and committed to their work at Cancun CVB mainly because for them it is a great opportunity to promote their own city. Every employee has its own tasks which he/she carries with responsibility. All employees work from 9am to 4pm. The atmosphere is easy-going due to the Mexican habits and everyone is very friendly. Some employees have lunch together and I always like to join them. They celabrate birthdays and special moments together and with cake.

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? Public relations department
Brief description of your daily activities: My daily tasks are updating the activities calendar, helping my supervisor where I can. For example, with contacting different organisations to ask for pictures or information. I have been working with different statistics to make a conclusion from the results in order to send it to different media that this information was relevant for. Furthermore, I searched for events that were coming up, which I described in Spanish, so that my supervisor could use this text to present it at the local television program ´Cancun Fashion Tours´. Every now and then my supervisor, the film crew and I went to a hotel to film for this program. Moreover, I joined my supervisor with receiving media from North America and Europe to meet with them. Sometimes they did not need much and in other cases we would join them in the activities, these are amazing opportunities and a lot of fun!
Brief description of your company assignment: Creating a communication campaign through the social media, in order to promote and attract visitors to Cancun.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision of the organization is amazing. The atmosphere is great and the employees are very friendly.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? A lot of social skills, flexibility and curiosity
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, writing skills (also a little bit in Spanish)
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? Via other students
How did you go to work every day? By public transport

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? No
How long in advance? –

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? Spanish Advanced Level

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 905
Accommodation (monthly): € 250
Local transport (monthly): € 22
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? The organisation does not pay the intern. However, they can provide: FAM (familiarization) trips with the media, entrance at events, conferences and discount for entering touristic attractions.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Important for my work was to read into the history of the destination and its surrounding areas. Its cultural background, including researching the believes and the legends of the citizens. Furthermore, I researched the development of the destination, the type of tourists and the touristic attractions.
For myself I did research to the different areas downtown, the use of transport. Moreover, I gained information about where to find supermarkets, a gym, a doctor, the hospital, a dentist etc.
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: Vera.vanderjagt@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Be kind and patient, it is better to not have high expentations of the placement, so that every opportunity that comes your way is great. Try to do your best and take iniative. When there is a FAM (familiarization) trip with the media you need to be VERY careful with what you say. You should not mention anything negative about the desination. It is best try smile a lot and try to provide positive information about the destination, so that the media can write positive about the destination, since the main goal is for them to promote Cancun. When the media is complaining about anything, you should show them that you understand/ feel bad about it and try to change the same topic into something positive (this doesn´t happen often though).
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: I would like to refer you to the guide maps on the website: http://cancun.travel/es/mapas-multimedia-y-descargas/. The guide maps provide information about all sorts of activities and in 6 different languages.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link