EcoColors Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EcoColors Tours
Town/city: Cancún
Country: Mexico
Website: http://www.ecotravelmexico.com

Name of student: Britt Vaarwater

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator
Organization’s activities: EcoColors is a sustainable tour operator located in Cancun, Mexico and offers different products in Ecotourism, Adventure tourism and Environmental training through quality, warmth and education. The tours are classified in cultural, adventure and nature tours.
Target group of the organization: People who want to travel eco-friendly
Company culture: The company has an informal culture, it is a relative small company and that is why it feels like a family. All the people are really nice and willing to help you out.
Number of employees: 15-30
Dress code: uniform
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? E-commerce marketing department.
Brief description of your daily activities: – Updating the social media channels
– Making tours for clients
– Checking the website
– SEO

Brief description of your company assignment: I had to make an assignment about the bicycle market.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My superviser was Kenneth Johnson and he is directly the boss of EcoColors. We had several meetings every week to discuss the workplan. If I needed some help, I could always ask him.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Indepentent, flexible, sociable, teamplayer
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, writing skills, SEO
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Previous students
How did you go to work every day? The company has a transport so you will be picked up everyday

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? Yes
How long in advance? 3 months 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? If you do not know any Spanish before you go, I recommend it because a lot of colleagues can only speak Spanish. I can say that you will learn a lot more Spanish during your stay!

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 900
Accommodation (monthly): € 280
Local transport (monthly): € I did not go with local transport to work, but if you want to take the bus to for example the beach it is just 50 cent.
General costs of living (monthly): € It depends, but with accommodation, food and going out during the weekends I think around 600 euros.
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? At work you have everyday a delicious meal which is made by a lovely Mexican lady and she makes really the best things! This cost you around 1,50 euro per meal.

The company pays you around 160 euros per month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not really prepare for the culture, but I looked on the internet. Mexico is really amazing and the people are really nice.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, only positive!!

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: britt.vaarwater@outlook.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Mexico is as I said really amazing and you can not be bored. There are a lot of things to do!

What I recommend to do are visiting these places:
– Chichen Itza
– Tulum (really cool vibe and nice beach)
– Cóba
– Isla Mujeres
– Cozumel (nice place to snorkel!)
– Isla Holbox (really relaxing)
– Merida and Valladolid (cities)
– Bacalar
– Rio Lagartos

Cancún is also a nice place to live and it has a nice nightlife and beautiful beaches, but if you want to explore and taste the real Mexican life you should go travel more to other places!

Which I also recommend if you have time, to travel after your internship to for example Chiapas in Mexico, Cuba, Belize or Guatemala. These are beautiful places and it is relative close.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: In Cancún you have beautiful beaches and nightlife. Where I lived was in downtown Cancún and here you can shop and eat a lot.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link