Catalan Tourist Board

Placement organization

Name of organization: Catalan Tourist Board
Town/city: Brussels
Country:
Website: http://www.act.cat/

Student

Name of student: Vincent Verwijmeren

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tourism Board
Organization’s activities: Promotion of brand ‘Catalunya’ as a tourist destination in the Benelux.
Target group of the organization: Benelux market
Company culture: Pretty informal although you can feel the different levels.
Number of employees: 6
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? No

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Operations Department
Brief description of your daily activities: Keeping track of tourism and economic trends, summarizing articles published after fam/blog trip, translations for slogans etc., magazine and brochure analysis.
Brief description of your company assignment: Online platform analysis. To see which (Dutch and Belgian) online platforms are usufull for cooperation.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Supervision was not as expected. Working very independant.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, wirting skills
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Catalan or Spanish highly prefered due to communication in office

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Facebook posts
How did you go to work every day? Tram and Metro

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? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 15
Accommodation (monthly): € 450
Local transport (monthly): € 10
General costs of living (monthly): € 800/850
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compenstation of €500.-

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
More for Catalan culture. Reading a lot.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Not in the country, but in the office: Yes! It influenced my work negatively.

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: If one wants to work in the Catalan Tourist Board, knowledge of the Catalan and/or Spanish language is highly reccommendable. Moreover, one has to be very independant.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Enough to do in Brussels. Altough, everything is in the city centre and where I lived (Woluwe Saint – Piere) cannot be reached by foot. After 0.30, there is no public transport in the city of Brussels.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link