Protours

Placement organization

Name of organization: Protours
Town/city: Puerto Varas
Country: Chili
Website: http://protoursdestination.com

Name of student: Lisa Herzog

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: *Cooperation with suppliers offering tourism-related services
*Sales to clients within Europe, USA, South America and Asia
*Promotional activities like attending tourism fairs (ITB) and personal visits to clients
Target group of the organization: European Market
Company culture: When it comes to taking important decisions and taking responsibilities Protours is highly hierarchical, however in daily working situations the company culture is rather informal.
Number of employees: 50
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? In the Marketing department.
Brief description of your daily activities: *Internal Newsletter
*Presentation for clients
*Working with internal program Tour Plan
*Preparation for ATTA event
*Translation of internal documents
*Product descriptions
*Protours Update (media to inform clients about restrictions caused by natural disasters or strikes)
*Promotion Alert
*Passenger homepage
*Working on the official Homepage
*Communication and negotiation with clients and providers
*Use of softwares FileZilla and Dreamweaver
*Use of Photoshop
*Creation of sales manual
*SEO project for the official homepage
*Selection of marketing material
*Development of marketing strategies
Brief description of your company assignment: I will be conducting a competitive analysis for Protours analysing our major competiters and coming up with a strategy for the company´s future development.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor Stephanie Wunsch (marketing department) taught be a lot, supported and motivated me when necessary and helped me to develop by means of her constructive criticism.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, team-player, being proactive and reliable
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, MS Office, writing skills/ ideal: Photoshop & SEO
English: Advanced
Spanish: Advanced
French:
German: Advanced
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Plane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Protours arranges and pays for the accommodation
How did you go to work every day? By foot

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? Yes, definitely

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1.600
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 30
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
Costs of visa: € 80
Costs of work permit: € /
What did the company pay for/to you? My company paid my accommodation (usually a room in a colleague´s house) as well as an additional amount of 60.000 CLP / 100 Euros

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I watched national TV channels like CNN Chile and tvn online to prepare for the language and did some research on the country´s politics and history.
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: 120975@nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: DO
Be proactive, open-minded, ask for help when needed, try to be as indipendent as possible
DONT
show an arrogant attitude, try to make to many changes in short term
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: *Visit the surrounding national parks such as Vicente Rosales and its attractions the Osorno volcano, the Petrohué waterfalls etc.

*Visit the Llanquihue lake

*Travel to Patagonia/ Torres del Paine

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link