Bahamas Tourist Office

Placement organization

Name of organization: Bahamas Tourist Office
Town/city: London
Country: Groot-Brittannië
Website: http://www.bahamas.com/

Name of student: Gayle van Liesdonk

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2015-2016

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tourism Board
Organization’s activities: The Bahamas Tourist Office is part of the organizational chart of the Ministry of Tourism which is situated in Nassau, The Bahamas. BTO London is responsible for all the Sales & Marketing in Europe which can be divided in three categories: Consumers, trade and public relations. The markets BTO London focusses on are the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands and Scandinavia. London is the headquarters of the European offices: France, Italy, Germany, Russia and the office in China.
Target group of the organization: British, Dutch, Scandinavian market
Company culture: Formal. The Bahamas Tourist Office is located in the building of The High Commission (embassy). Even though it is a formal environment, everybody is very friendly and mutual contact is more informal. The dress code is business attire/business casual. Jeans are not allowed, there is no casual Friday.
Number of employees: 2
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Marketing
Brief description of your daily activities: – Answering the phone
– monitoring my own email account and info@bahamas.co.uk,
– Despatching brochures, answering questions
– Dealing with trade and consumer requests
– Processing invoices
– Assisting monitoring the UK budget
– Preparing and attending consumer/trade shows
– Answering to trade and media requests
– Smaller assignments in order to help the others
–
Brief description of your company assignment: The general brochure. The content and the layout. And the social media. BTO was not active on social media until a few months ago. I am keeping an eye on news items regarding The Bahamas so we can share them with all the followers. Searching and contacting photographers to ask if we can use there photos. Writing a blog. Everything that has to do with Social Media, being creative, give input etc.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: You will be supervised by the senior regional manager. The more you show you are capable of working independent, the more tasks and responsibility you get.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, stress-proof, performable, flexible, sociable, confident
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, communication skills, writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: car and train (although everything is possible)

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Internet, but I would highly recomment that if you have the possibility to come to London to look for a room, do it.
How did you go to work every day? Underground and by foot (30 minutes max every day)

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, unless you feel like you need it

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € € 78 just for the train, without gas money.
Accommodation (monthly): € €557 each (€1115 in total), sharing a room in a house with a friend who is also doing her internship in London (NHTV student)
Local transport (monthly): € €86.63 for zone 1-2 ( apply for a Student 18+ Oyster card, comparable to the OV, saves you a lot of money)
General costs of living (monthly): € € 500
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? £5,- lunch vouchers per working day. The vouchers can be spent in the supermarket, Starbucks, fastfood chains and a number of restaurants. You will get these at the end of each month.
– Travelcard

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Not needed, the British culture isn’t that different from the Dutch Culture but keep in mind that British people are more polite and they stick by the rules.

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: 131510@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Keep in mind that it is a very expensive city. Most of the time the exchange rate (£ to €) isn’t in our favour and your bank will charge you for every time you use the ATM (probably 2,25) or pay with your card (probably 0,15 per transfer)
– Start looking for a room as soon as possible!!!!! If you have the possibility to go to London to check out rooms, DO it! Or ask somebody else to check out the place your are interested in!
– Get a Credit Card. The ticket machines at the stations don’t accept our bankcards, they do accept credit cards. Also, everything you pay with your credit card will be insured.
– Check your health insurance before you leave. You can also ask your insurance company for an international health insurance card (internationale zorgpas). When you need to go to the doctor, dentist etc while you are here, you can show them the card and they will know the invoice will be paid by your healh insurance company and they will send the invoice to the health insurance company right away. So you don’t have to pay for it in advance.
– Get a travel and contents insurance. So all your belongings will be insured while you are abroad. You can easily do this at your bank.
– Apply for a Student 18+ Oyster card. This will save you up to 30%. https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/adult-discounts-and-concessions/18-student
–
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is always something to do here. http://www.timeout.com/london is a great website to check what there is to do and when.
– Especially around Christmas there are a lot of things to do ( Hyde Park, WinterWonderland, Christmaslights at Oxfordstreet)
– Go out and see as much as possible, before you know it, your internship is over and you are heading back home.
Most of all, enjoy, enjoy the experience, the city, the people and everything that London offers you!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link