Reizen Lauwers

Placement organization

Name of organization: Reizen Lauwers
Town/city: Boechout – Antwerp
Country: België
Website: http://reizenlauwers.be

Name of student: Natasha Plompen

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Organizing tours around the world, but this company is notably specialized in accompanied coach holidays within Europe.
Target group of the organization: 55+ Belgian seniors, but the overall public is very broad and diverse
Company culture: The company culture is definitely informal. As an intern, you should know that the company is a family founded business and therefore not as dynamic as most tourism companies are nowadays. All employees are very nice and helpful, and you are treated as if you were an actual colleague.
Number of employees: 200, but approximately 35 on this location
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Product & Marketing, SkiFriends
Brief description of your daily activities: Filing every guide-related activity: planning of guides, composing guide order forms with their comfirmed trips, follow-up of responses, handling guide invoices, filing them in maps, composing guide dossiers etc. Checking ID/passport-information of passengers, drawing up contracts, researching hotels, contact with suppliers and clients, requesting ESTA’s or visa’s for passengers, composing dossiers, participating in meetings, competitor analysis, bus planning, trip planning, filing cancelled trips, creating/filing input for website
Brief description of your company assignment: The company assignment consists of a research on how to attract and activate 50 – 60 year old Belgian travellers to book their trip at Reizen Lauwers, followed by recommendations in the marketing sector
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The company supervisor is the Head of another department, so I was not directly supervised by him. However, I received most of my daily duties from two employees working for the Product & Marketing department and they informed my company supervisor on my performance. I immediately got a lot of responsibility in carrying out my daily tasks, but if I had questions or anything I could always go to the company supervisor or the other employees; everyone is very open. There is enough supervision and accompaniment!

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, motivated
Additional company requirements for this placement? Knowledge of MS Office, Excel
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Intermediate
German: Intermediate
Italian: Basic
Other languages: Dutch/Flemish: company language

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: –

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? –
How did you go to work every day? Commuting by car – take long traffic jams into consideration (up to 2 hours one-way)

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): € –
Accommodation (monthly): € –
Local transport (monthly): € Car fuel
General costs of living (monthly): € –
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation of 20 euros per day

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not; I have worked in Belgium since a couple of years. For people who are not that used to the Belgian culture, you will research enough information in the placement plan prior to your placement. The Flemish culture is quite similar to the Dutch culture.
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: No
My e-mail address: natashaplompen1994@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: This is a perfect placement for (Dutch) students who want to stay at home, but still have to do a placement abroad for earning the ECTS. Some tips: be prepared to spend a lot of time in traffic jams, some knowledge of Excel would be very good (because you’ll work with Excel a lot) and be motivated, interested and positive, enjoy it! All employees, managers and directors are really nice and will help you anytime.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: –

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link