Tailor Made Safaris/Safaris op Maat

Placement organization

Name of organization: Tailor Made Safaris/Safaris op Maat
Town/city: St Lucia
Country: Zuid-Afrika
Website: http://tailormadesafaris.co.za

Student

Name of student: Romée Nieuwland

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Tailor Made Safaris is a tour operator offering safari tours in South Africa, Nambia, Zambia and Botswana. Every single tour gets personalized according to the client’s wishes.
Target group of the organization: European/American middle and upper class
Company culture: St Lucia is a small town and, therefore, many employees see each other both on work and in their private life. This makes the company culture quite informal.
Number of employees: 10
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Everyone is in the same office and almost all employees are busy with the same set of tasks: selling tours. Of course, certain employees have additional responsibilities on the side, but the line between different departments is not very clear. This makes that the daily tasks that will keep you busy are extremely diverse.

Brief description of your daily activities: – Creating quotes
– Creating cost calculations
– Proposing quotes to clients, messaging them and amending quotes according to their wishes.
– Booking accommodations and activities
– Creating self-drive photo books for clients (Albelli photobooks)
– Updating social media
– Translating texts
– Making Wetu’s and building Travel Local itineraries (online itinerary the client receives when the tour is being proposed)
– Contacting accommodations
– Putting clients in the system
Brief description of your company assignment: Because the results of past online marketing via social media has led to disappointment, according to the boss, he wanted to introduce something new to the marketing plan, which was the implementation of a video marketing strategy. My assignment was to create a YouTube marketing strategy and to film videos and be “the face” of these videos that were/are being published weekly. You can find the videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIm6JRSZZFLvK_yGIlhLkuw?view_as=subscriber
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision by the organisation was good. The boss and manager are quite flexible and super nice, which made the communication with them easy, yet professional.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independence, flexibility, stress-proof, representable
Additional company requirements for this placement? Both English and Dutch language skills are extremely important
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch, mother tongue

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Provided by the company
How did you go to work every day? Bicycle (provided by company)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, an exchange visa
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Embassy
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? About 6 weeks
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? I already had them from previous travels to Africa

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 necessarily

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € Slightly cheaper than Holland
Costs of visa: € About 150 euros in total
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not really prepare. There are many (Dutch) tourists in St Lucia and even though the town is small, it has everything one might need. Of course, you are in a completely different country and there are things you will need to get used to, for example, power shutdowns, the massive gap between poor and rich or the way South Africans tend to think about different races. Personally, I don’t feel like you need a lot of preparation, as long as you’re open-minded and accept other cultures.
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: romeenieuwland@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: St Lucia is beautiful and feels like a safe bubble. The hippo’s (and leopards) are regular night visitors in town, but no worries, there is no need to have safety concerns about this. Just bring a flashlight at night and you’ll be fine!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The vacancy will probably tell you that St Lucia is small and that there is not much to do but believe me, you will not get bored. There is a local bar where all the locals get together in the weekends (or during weekdays if you like ;)) and the town is literally situated within a World Heritage Site. This means that you only have to drive a few minutes and you will be in a park, where you can find all kind of wildlife, beautiful beaches and amazing views (you can google it, iSimangaliso Wetland Park).
In St Lucia there are activities like turtle tours, whale watching tours, horseback riding in a game reserve, snorkelling, diving, or spearfishing
St Lucia is conveniently located and you will find that there is a lot to do in the near surroundings. There are many game reserves and you will probably spend many weekends on safari. Also, there are beautiful beaches around and you can see whales, turtles, swim with dolphins… no need to get bored!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link