CRS Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: CRS Tours
Town/city: San Jose
Country: Costa Rica

Student

Name of student: Wytske Posthuma
Website: http://www.crstours.com
Name of student: Wytske Posthuma
Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Selling tailor made packages for Costa Rica(, Nicaragua and Panama).
Target group of the organization: Everyone, besides low budget travelers. We do not offer hostels or similar.
Company culture: I was mainly performing on the sales department, but it all depends on your own. You have a lot of freedom within this company to do what you would like to.
Communication goes mainly by skype chat or face to face.
You can always go to the company director as long as he got time.

Number of employees: 12 + 3 interns
Dress code: casual (though not with flip flops and low buttoned shirts, just neat)
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes, I only needed to watch that they would give me enough time for school too.

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Company structure:Directors, Accountancy Department&HRM, Group Sales, Sales, Reservation and Operations Department. . I worked mostly in sales department of the fits (individual packages).
Brief description of your daily activities: I receive requests from clients, so I call them for some more information before I create a tailor made package. You need to stay in contact with them to b able to sell the package. Most clients have more requests by other companies too, for this reason you will learn how to convince them to book with our company. This job asks for some courage.
Brief description of your company assignment: I re-designed the feedback process for the company to benefit more of this so important and free information we receive of our clients.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: You get as much supervision as you ask for. Of course they do not always have time for you, but it mostly depends on your own initiative to ask them for guidance.
Connection with study program: Relevant

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent (since you have to do a lot of your tasks on your own), taking initiative (only way to get tasks), not shy (since you have to speak a foreign language, sometimes it is hard), flexible (you are an intern, anything can happen, anything may be asked of you). But most, just be yourself and let people know how you look at things! Show them your effort and input. They´ll appreciate it more than when you keep quiet out of politeness.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Of course you have to work with Word, Excel, Internet a whole lot, Microsoft Office Outlook, Facebook, site navigation is a pré, and anything else is a pré too.
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Additional languages are a plus

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplanes, one from Amsterdam to Panama International Airport. The second from Panama to San José International Airport. I was very lucky with my travel times, but then I also paid for it.

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I heard of the previous intern of NHTV that the company had arranged a place to stay for her. So I also asked the contact person of the company if they had any address for me to stay. I stayed at the house of the same woman the previous girl stayed. It´s a good house and family to live with.
How did you go to work every day? I could walk, less than 8 minutes I think. By buss is way too complicated and takes more time as well. I also found it safer to walk, since a lot of robberies happen in the busses too.

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, you do not need this. Only if you travel through the United States, if your transit is here, you will have to reply for an ESTA (look op on Google). It cost around 25 euro´s.
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: n/a
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes, approx. two months in advance

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? n/a

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1275,00 (but I asked for more leg space as well as a very comfortable travelling schedule). You could get a ticket for €900 up to €1000 euro´s.
Accommodation (monthly): € 255,00
Local transport (monthly): € really hard to say. It depends very much on how often you like to go by bus. But the busses cost around 300 colones, which is less than 50 cents
General costs of living (monthly): € hard to say ,-/per month (crazy, but true! Everything is MORE expensive in Costa Rica, compared to the Netherlands. Very strange, but you better keep this in mind).
Costs of visa: n/a
Costs of work permit: € n/a
What did the company pay for/to you? € Nothing

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture? Not.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, everything goes a little bit slower in Latin-American countries. You might need to ask 10 times for them to come to you to help you out. Or else ways you will be waiting on them at the end of the day still.

Future students on placement

My telephone number: 06-37169902
My e-mail address: 102395@edu.nhtv.nl (feel free, because it has helped me a lot. So I am more than willing to help the next one out)!

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: -Sun crème is very important here, the sun is much stronger.
-You cannot walk with your phone or wallet on the streets. People will know you probably have one, but do not tempt them by showing it! Only in good quality restaurants or in the company you can have a look at your phone. Else way don´t!
-Do not wear a lot of jewelry, or expensive looking ones
-Do not walk the streets alone when it is dark

Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: It is very easy to travel to other places from San José, there are a lot of busses going directly to those places. San José is the heart of the country, but in all honestly not the prettiest. The true Costa Rica lays outside of San José.

Media

Youtube linkYoutube video internship