Seventh Sense

Placement organization

Name of organization: Seventh Sense
Town/city: Cape Town
Country: Zuid-Afrika
Website: http://www.seventh-sense.co.za/

Name of student: Joyce Zengerink

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2015-2016

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Mangement Company
Organization’s activities: Organizing both leisure and MICE trips in Southern Africa. For the MICE department, congresses, incentive trips and business meetings are organized with all aspects included. Think about arranging (special) transportation options like vintage cars and gala dinners. The company is responsible for the groups from the moment they arrive at the airport till they leave the country again, so many organizational aspects are included and very important for the company and the clients.
Target group of the organization: European MICE/leisure
Company culture: The business culture is informal and there is hardly a hierarchy. There are a few senior travel consultants, who have more experiences and all responsible for their own clients. Besides that, interns and junior consultants assist the other employees by checking availability at hotels, making reservations at restaurants and activities and all these supporting tasks. In the end, everyone is wiling to help each other and due to the informal environment and the small team, you feel very welcome and it is easy to become part of the team.
Number of employees: 10
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Absolutely

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I worked for the MICE department. This is the main department of the company, with a team of five travel consultants and two/three interns at the same time.
Brief description of your daily activities: My general daily activities were creating budgets for the clients, including all details from hotel rates to entrance fees of national parks and the rental of flowers for the gala dinners. Furthermore, I had to create the presentations for the clients, which presented the possible itinerary, including all different options and alternatives for that specific group. Checking availability and making reservations were daily business as well and therefore you will have a lot of contact with local suppliers.
Brief description of your company assignment: The mission of the company is as follows: “Seventh Sense aims to promote responsible tourism and create tailor made itineraries combining top standard tourism services, exotic locations and social awareness” (Seventh Sense, 2014). This is exactly what a team of seven permanent and five flexible employees is working on every day. The MICE department works in a business to business (B2B) environment and most of the request come from intermediaries, being European based Travel Agencies and/or Event management or Communication Agencies, representing the end-client. Once a request have been lodged, it is followed by a quick brainstorming to customise a draft programme answering to the client’s specific needs. Secondly a quick feasibility study to establish that the creative ideas are achievable in terms of capacities, dates, logistics etc. Once the concept is discussed and accepted by the client, a full itemised quotation (budget) and presentation (programme) is drafted which makes up the formal proposal. During this process, there are also rate negotiations, terms & condition negotiations, availability checks and processing of provisional reservations.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor was great! She was very helpful and always willing to explain new things, but the only problem was the workload of the company and all employees. Everyone was very busy, they had the busiest season in years, so they were stressed and sometimes too busy to help. However, they are all super nice and friendly and definitely willing to help. The fact that they involve you in all business activities, makes it sometimes difficult to find time to work on the assignments, but if you mention this problem, they will help you to solve it and find a solution.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? teamplayer, flexible, stress-proof, sociable, pro-active, open-minded, sociable
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office (Excel!), writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Intermediate
German: Intermediate
Italian: Basic
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Agency, 4exhange
How did you go to work every day? by foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, an exchange visa
Do you need a work permit? No, you will need the exchange visa
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Embassy in The Hague
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 4 weeks
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
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? It is a French company, so this is an advantage

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800
Accommodation (monthly): € 400
Local transport (monthly): € 75
General costs of living (monthly): € 150
Costs of visa: € 200
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Small financial compensation, which covered my lunch and taxi expenses

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not really prepare myself, I just went there.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? It did. It is sometimes different that the European

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: This company is definitely willing to help you as an intern and to give you the opportunity to learn about all different operational aspects of a DMO. It is important that you will be willing to learn and to put effort in the company. They do not have the 9-5 mentality, so be prepared for some longer working days during high season.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Cape Town is a great city and has everything to offer what you are looking for. Amazing nature all around, with great surfing and hiking possibilities. The city is famous for its culinary offers and you will fall in love with all the good restaurants where you can have a 3-course meal including wine for only 15 euros… There are countless coffee and lunch places, which transform into a bar the late afternoon. You will never get bored in the city, but the surrounding area is as great as Cape Town. Stellenbosch is only 30min by car, with over 150 wine houses where you can easily go for lunch or a wine tasting (3 euros for 5 glasses furthermore, there you have the famous Garden Route, which is a most do when you have a few days off. Overall, you will never ever get bored in this city!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link