Cultural Immersion (CI Travel Peru)

Placement organization

Name of organization: Cultural Immersion (CI Travel Peru)
Town/city: Cusco
Country: Peru
Website: http://culturalimmersion.org

Name of student: Elena Van der Baan

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: CI Travel Peru is a relatively small tour operator that organises private tours on off-beaten tracks. The employees work on Sales, reservation management and operations. Sales people directly talk to the clients and organises the tours, reservation field reserves all the necessary hotels and tickets and operations takes care of the payments
Target group of the organization: Moslty US citizens, low percentage of Europeans and Asians
Company culture: The founder of the company is also the boss and manager of the company. Bellow him there is a secretary who also takes care of the reservation and operations. The other 6 employees are divided in: 3 people for sales, one of which checks all the work of the others 2, 2 work in reservations and 1 in operations.
The company is quite informal, no dress codes and the boss is sometimes easily reachable although he is difficult as a person.
Number of employees: 7
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? More or less

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Sales department
Brief description of your daily activities: I receive emails of clients who want to book tour with us, sometimes the contact is only through email other times through phone calls. Sometimes the clients already know what they want and therefore I prepare their itinerary, others ask for advice and therefore I give them different option upon which they can make their final choice. Ones they agree on their ideal itinerary I transfer their itinerary to reservations where the people in charge will book the necessary elements.
Ones the clients arrive, if it is a business day then I will be in charge of meeting them, explaining them the itinerary and making sure they have a great stay with us.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment consists in writing about the possible improvement of the company. Which is done through research, first-hand experience and interview to the boss.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: When I arrived I was trained by a colleague who only started a couple of weeks before I did. I wasn’t trained by my boss or by someone very professional. I learned after some mistakes and became better at what I was doing. Only a few weeks later my boss approached me to ask me if I was understanding everything. In the office most of the time we work as a team other times each one is responsible for their own work and mistake. I personally think that the boss isn’t present as much as he should be, however I am just an intern maybe I am mistaken and this is how it is supposed to be.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Stress-proof, flexible with clients, patient
Additional company requirements for this placement? Good level of business English as well as email writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French: Intermediate
German:
Italian: Advanced
Other languages: Amharic second mother tongue

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Employee from the company helped before arrival
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

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800 euros
Accommodation (monthly): € 150
Local transport (monthly): € 30
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? The company paid a monthly salary

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I normally adapt very fast to another country and another culture, however this time it was very hard to adapt and had a few health issues as well as issues of getting used to the place, which might have affected my performance at work.
I believe that it is not really possible to prepare beforehand for another culture, the only thing to do is experience it.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: elena_vdb@yahoo.it

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Regarding Cusco, I would say to try to find a room near the centre, San Blas or Marcavalle, because there are a lot of restaurants and shops. At night it is advisable to take a taxi back home or at least not walk alone. It is necessary to bring rain and winter jackets.

Regarding the company, I would say that if someone decides to work in CI, to be very patient and tolerant with the boss. The colleagues are mostly friendly and fun.

As most of the week is spent on work it is important to plan trips during the weekends in order to have enough time to explore Peru.

It is very important to start working on NHTV assignments as soon as possible after the placement has started.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Cusco is the best location to start travelling as it has good infrastructure and transport system. It is known as the capital of the Inca Empire because it has a lot of interesting sites to visit in its surroundings.

It has a lot of bars, restaurants and shops where a nice and relaxing afternoon can be spent. The night life is also nice and diverse.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link