Voyage Colombia, department of FROSCH Colombia

Placement organization

Name of organization: Voyage Colombia, department of FROSCH Colombia
Town/city: Bogotá
Country: Colombia
Website: http://www.voyagecolombia.com/

Name of student: Kristina Holzer

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2017-2018

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Voyage Colombia specializes in offering innovative, experiential and personalized tours to individual travelers and families or small groups. The trips focus around culture, adventure, sport and eco-tourism in Colombia. It is also possible to only book transportation services or one of the multilingual guides who work together with Voyage Colombia.
Target group of the organization: • Foreigners: inbound travel mainly from the U.S. and Europe
Company culture: The dress code is business casual. The atmosphere is rather informal in the office. It is alsways really lñively and people laugh all the time. The keep close relationships with their suppliers who also come to the office from time to time.
Number of employees: approximately 70
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Department: Voyage Colombia (incoming tourism)

Brief description of your daily activities: • Pricing Portfolio / Tarifario Voyage – I will have to go through all the tarifarios of the suppliers of Voyage Colombia in different cities of Colombia in order to decide which tours will also be offered in the tarifario of 2018 of Voyage Colombia. Afterwards it is necessary to describe the tour briefly and indicate what will be included. Afterwards I will also help in updating the prices of the tour in Excel.
• Master Journeys / Hotel Journeys – preparation of this document to help make quoting process more efficient for operations team. (This process will also help me with PHASE 1 of the company assignment.)
• Merge and organise data base of suppliers and contacts used by Voyage & MICE
• Supporting itinerary design and costing of travels requested by the clients of Voyage Colombia.
• Support any other areas of need that may arise during the internship.

they also take me to almost all company meetings and meetings with suppliers.
Brief description of your company assignment: The aim of the company assignment will be to develop a new sustainable tourism product for the portfolio of Voyage Colombia. In order to achieve this the assignment is divided into four phases which will be explained in the following part:

PHASE 1 – Current State: In this phase it is necessary to define all the products with sustainable aspects, which are already offered by Voyage Colombia. This is important because it is fundamental to know what is already provided for the clients in order to be able to better position and promote these products.
• Understand Sustainable Tourism concepts and principles
• Review all experience / hotel portfolios and identify those that align with sustainable tourism principles
• Highlight within each experience identified, what makes it aligned to sustainability tourism principle
• Based on the above, I have to provide recommendations on how to better position/promote/communicate the offerings of Voyage Colombia around their commitment of sustainable and responsible travel
• Timeframe: Weeks 2-10

PHASE 2- Target Market: In this phase potential markets will be analysed in order to identify a new target market which will be interested in a sustainable tourism offering. The following points will be of importance:
• Market research on sustainable travel (Is the interest around sustainable tourism growing? What countries are most interested in this offering? What specific experiences / products are of most interest
• Identify specific agencies/ buyers (including countries they operate in) that the offering can be promote to (use Voyage’s current data base of agencies, but also identify other potential buyers not included in this list)
• Timeframe: Weeks 10-15

PHASE 3 – Product development: In this phase I will have to develop a new sustainable product based on the research done in phase 1 and 2.
• Develop new product offering (pricing, itinerary, description, etc.)
• Timeframe: Weeks 16-18

PHASE 4 – Presentation: In the final phase I will have to prepare a PowerPoint presentation in order to share my findings with the rest of the company.
• Presentation must include:
• Key findings around current
• Brief overview of market trends in relation to sustainable travel
• Identification of key markets and specific
• Overview of new sustainable tourism product developed, highlights and costs
• Recommendations on how to better promote the offering from a communications perspective
• Timeframe: Weeks 18-20
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I am meeting my company supervisor every week to talk about my general well-being in the company and Colombia and my progress in the company assignments and my daily activities.
she is very nice and supportive.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? sociable, independent, team player
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: The more languages the better but necessary apart from Spanish and English.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: plane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Facebook group
How did you go to work every day? Public transportation

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes a student visa
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: It is very easy to obtain the visa and the company will help you with everything including the ID you will get once arrived in Colombia
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? You only need a letter from university, placement contract and proof that you have sufficient financial funds for this period (or your parents)
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? if you do not speak Spanish definitely, because in the company everyone only speaks Spanish even though a big part of your actual work will be in English

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800-1000
Accommodation (monthly): € 200
Local transport (monthly): € 40
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: € 40
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? I receive a little bit less than 200 € per month and they paid for my ID (not the visa) and my additional health insurance here (you still need your own international health insurance)

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not really prepare for it because i have already lived in Latin America before.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? in a positive way because everyone is very open and supporting. It is a great atmosphere.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: kristina.holzer@gmx.de

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Just make sure to listen to what the locals say. During the night it would not be a good idea to walk along the streets especially not alone and certain areas of the city should be avoided. Apart from that i always felt very safe. It is a good idea to look for a shared flat with Colombians because they can help you a lot with everything and you get to know the culture best. That is what i did and i really enjoy my time with them.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Bogotá, its surroundings and the country are just amazing. There is a lot to do and to explore and the time will probably not be enough to see everything.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link