Gulliver Expeditions

Placement organization

Name of organization: Gulliver Expeditions
Town/city: Quito
Country: Ecuador
Website: https://www.gulliver.com.ec

Student

Name of student: Robin van Lutterveld

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator / Travel agency
Organization’s activities: Creating and offering a wide variety of adventurous tours.
Target group of the organization: Mainly English and German clients
Company culture: Compared to The Netherlands there is quite a bit of hierarchy within the company in terms of responsibilities and final decisions to be made, the company atmosphere etc. however is rather informal.
Number of employees: 15
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

The marketing department

Brief description of your daily activities: Social media marketing, updating the website, writing blog and website content, finding new ways to market the company, design and create newsletters, posters etc.
Brief description of your company assignment: Online marketing analysis
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Very helpful, friendly and gave a lot of freedom for own input.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? sociable, flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? Basic SEO, Photoshop and WordPress knowledge
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? Company
How did you go to work every day? bus or bicycle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, but a student visa is recommended
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: embassy in the hague
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? perhaps 2 weeks
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? 2-3 months

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, I spoke barely no Spanish when I arrived. It is definitely do-able but would recommend a Spanish course.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800
Accommodation (monthly): € –
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: € 150
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation, meals on Fridays and a lot of activities were paid for by the company.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not prepare.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Not really, the culture is a bit more relaxed.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 152540@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do: travel the whole country and get out of the city almost every weekend.
Don’t: do not not go to Ecuador
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Infinite possibilities.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link