TCI Research

Placement organization

Name of organization: TCI Research
Town/city: Brussels
Country: België
Website: http://tci-research.com/

Name of student: Lea

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2017-2018

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tourism Research Company
Organization’s activities: TCI Research is focused on quantitative and qualitative research in the form of surveys, Big Data and a global competitive index. The company works together with independent research and consultancy centres from different continents, such as North Amerika, South Amerika, Europe and Asia. The marketing promotion strategy of TRAVELSAT©, tool is done at international forums for tourism competitiveness, conferences, fairs and via email/outbound calls or by word-of-mouth.
Target group of the organization: Tourism authorities, NTOs/RTOs/CTOs, Tourism stakeholders involved in the tourism planning process
Company culture: Informal, network-based
Number of employees: 4
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

These activities are mainly from the Research, Marketing and communications department, Public relations, Product Management, E-commerce and Purchasing department.

Brief description of your daily activities: The daily tasks will be contributing in conducting market research projects for various tourism clients supervised by a Market Research Executive. Assisting the coordination of projects in cooperation with suppliers and partners for each research involved in. Check the quality of data, prepare analysis and reports provided to clients, meeting company quality standard and deadlines. Going on the field in various locations for in-site tourist recruitments and methodology implementation. Assistance in questionnaire design, scripting, test and validation with clients. Fieldwork monitoring and quality control. Emailing and database management. Desk Research.
Brief description of your company assignment: Competitor analysis report
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: You will be working mostly at the office, Olivier is sometimes abroad because of conferences so you will be working independently which is very important to keep your planning updated and to ask specific questions once you are lost. You will be having contact with other employees via Skype since they live abroad.

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? MS Office, Excel and Powerpoint on mid-high level since you need to work with these tools
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German: Basic
Italian: Basic
Other languages: English is the most important language. You should be able to speak and understand and translate, Besides English, all the workers speak French Other languages can benefit you since you need to translate a lot but its not necessary

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: train/car since im from the Netherlands

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? myself via internet/facebook groups
How did you go to work every day? bus/metro/bicycle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Not for European sitizens
Do you need a work permit? No only if you register at the government and if you are a non European sitizen
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? Not necessary, depending on language level

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € Train (for dutchies who have a student card or discount card/ free traveling card in the Netherlands) you can go online to fill in the document of Campus kaart which is specially for students who are from Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg, you need to let it fill in by NHTV and then you can travel 10 single trips to your hometown (until the boarder between Belgium and the other countries) for around 15 euros. You need an official picture and the paper filled in by NHTV. You can purchase another one after completing 10 single trips.
Accommodation (monthly): € 450, most of the rooms are around 500 euros
Local transport (monthly): € 28, you can buy a mobib card which you can take 10 single trips for 14 euros.
General costs of living (monthly): € 100, doing groceries are expensive in Brussels (try to live close by a lidl/aldi) will make your costs less.
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation of €250

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Research on the country and city.
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: 140213@nhtv.edu.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: If you are searching for a place to live try to look at these websites:
https://brik.mykot.be
https://www.2ememain.be
https://www.student.be/
http://www.studence.be
http://www.wilgimmo.be
https://www.nestpick.com/
housing anywhere / Erasmus
https://www.appartager.be
https://www.spotahome.com
https://immo.vlan.be/
https://www.brukot.be
http://www.student-rooms-brussels.be/
http://www.studeoliving.com/en/concept
http://www.lviimmo.com/
http://www.bdlf.be/fr/index.html
http://www.pied-a-terre.be/newtarifsenglh1.htm
http://www.woneninbrussel.be/huren-brussel/korte-verblijven

Watch out for scammers, they will ask you to pay first or sent you first the contact before even seeing the property and receiving the key.

For Brussels it is recommended to have a basic in French in order to communicate with locals etc. Only a few people can speak Dutch.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: If you live near Flagey, you can basically go anywhere and it is close to the center. You can visit the typical Brussels tourist sites such as the Grand Place, Atomium, Manneke Pis/Vrouwke pis/Hondje pis, The European Parlement etc.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link