Khiri Travel Laos

Placement organization

Name of organization: Khiri Travel Laos
Town/city: Vientiane
Country: Laos
Website: https://khiri.com/laos/

Student

Name of student: Susanne Bastings

Specialist area: TM
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator
Organization’s activities: Khiri Travel offers full day-, half day- and multi-day tours and customized and tailor-made tours. The organization does only work with small groups. Every tour will be guided by an English (in some special cases a different language) speaking guide, who will help and provide the clients with information.
Target group of the organization: adventurous, open-minded travelers
Company culture: The company culture does not have a high hierarchy. There is one general manager (Stefan) with his team. The team consist of 4 people working at the sales department with 1 leader who is called ‘Khek’, Then there are 3 women named ‘Larsoy’ ‘Miemala’ and ‘Sommy’ working in the finance department, and there are 3 persons in the operate department called ‘Niikon’, ‘Kim’ and ‘Sonethavee’.
Number of employees: 13
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

allround employee.

Brief description of your daily activities: Making Khiri Travel more sustainable, so providing trainings, making the ofice plastic free etc. And helping in the sales department with product updates and writing descriptions.
Brief description of your company assignment: Helping Khiri Travel Laos in becoming a certified partner of Travelife. Travelife is a leading training, management and certification initiative for tourist companies that are committed to sustainability. By being a certified partner of Travelife, Khiri Travel Laos expects to attract more new clients and becoming more sustainable
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor helped my during my tasks and answered all of my questions.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Good oral skills and writing skills, flexible, independent, open-minded
Additional company requirements for this placement? Good writing skills, presentation skills
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Internet, myself
How did you go to work every day? by motorbike

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, workvisa
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Khiri Travel arranged it for me
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 2 weeks
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? 3 months

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, it is not necessary

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1000
Accommodation (monthly): € 350
Local transport (monthly): € 10
General costs of living (monthly): € 800
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? The work visa, and montly 350 dollar

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I read a lot on internet and magazines
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Try to prepare a lot yourself and read about the Lao culture. I had a big culture shock when I first arrived which made things difficult. And always be open-minded and very flexible.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: It is the capital city of Laos so there is enough to do. I visited Vang Vieng in the weekends.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link