Khiri Travel

Placement organization

Name of organization: Khiri Travel
Town/city: Bangkok
Country: Thailand
Website: http://khiri.com

Name of student: Ruoling Heerkens

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: DMC
Organization’s activities: Specialist Destination Management Services for Southeast Asia to Tour Operators Worldwide
Target group of the organization: Different groups
Company culture: Hierarchy is very important. However there is a difference between the Thai colleagues and the ‘foreigners’. Thai will respect their superiors greatly and treat people different according to their title. The foreigners Western people however (mostly Dutch) will make you at ease by not applying these rules.
Number of employees: 40+
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? FOX operations department
Brief description of your daily activities: Assist FOX reservations/operations team with customer care and/or product updates. This includes; obtaining, researching data (of several destinations), which is necessary to update the current state of information provision given to the customer by FOX. Help with translating Dutch documents into English and analyze them. And in a later stage customer care duties will be added. Also benchmark and commercial analyses on optional excursions sold to group tour guests by tour-leader/tour-guide. Update all information correctly to efficiently communicate and sell the excursions to FOX and guests.

Brief description of your company assignment: Implementation of Travelife (sustainability system) in FOX products and team in Thailand.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The company supervisor is very involved with my progress at Khiri Travel but also shows personal interest.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, sociable, flexible, stress-proof
Additional company requirements for this placement? Applem office, excel, powerpoint, writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German: Basic
Italian: Basic
Other languages: Dutch – mother tongue

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? company provides
How did you go to work every day? car (taxi)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, tourist or education
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: embassy
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? depends on the visa
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance? n.a.

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): € 700
Accommodation (monthly): € n.a.
Local transport (monthly): € appr. 60
General costs of living (monthly): € depends on the person
Costs of visa: € depends on visa
Costs of work permit: € n.a.
What did the company pay for/to you? Salary of 10.000 THB per month
Accommodation incl. water and electricity

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
To be honest I did not make any specific preparations for the culture.
I have spend many summers in Asia and therefore know what to expect, how to behave and to deal with certain situations.
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: ruolingheerkens@live.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: what to do: travel as much as you can! try new things, meet new people and seek new experiences. Thailand is a beautiful country that has so much to offer. It is a pity to only come here and sit behind your desk and do paperwork.

what not to do: wallow away in a corner
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The internship says Bangkok, however the office is situated in the Nonthaburi area, which is about 25km of the popular city heart. In the area besides some shopping malls there is basically nothing to do. There aren’t many foreigners and the local people literally don’t speak a word English. Therefore it might get lonely sometimes. From my experience you are not able to quickly meet up with friends in the city as you work from 08:30 to 18:00 MO to FRI. Before you start this placement (like any others) you need to prepare yourself well and make sure this is the right one for you, otherwise you’ll find yourself unhappy for 20 weeks long.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link