7th Sense Travel

Placement organization

Name of organization: 7th Sense Travel
Town/city: Cape Town
Country: Zuid-Afrika
Website: http://www.seventh-sense.co.za/index.php

Student

Name of student: Amber Krijbolder

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: tour operator
Organization’s activities: 7th Sense is an innovative Destination Management Company based in South Africa which specializes in Responsible Tourism. Dedicated to corporate & individual tourism, we organize family holidays, honeymoons, special interest trips as well as incentives, seminars and conferences.
Target group of the organization: European (mostly French & Belgium)
Company culture: The whole atmosphere at 7th Sense Travel is really relaxed to work in. The company is very informal, what is very pleasant.
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?

I worked in the FIT-departement. Where I was responsible for the tailor made trips for families, groups of friends and honeymooners.

Brief description of your daily activities: I was creating customized itineraries within Southern African countries and I build the corresponding quotations and programs. I negotiate with suppliers, send invoices to clients and followed up on suppliers and clients payments and conformations.
Brief description of your company assignment: 7th Sense Travel has it own trust fonds. I did research to that trust fonds and was looking for ways to increase the incoming money and did research to the best way to spend to money and how we could motivate people to join the fonds and do volunteer work in South Africa while they are on holiday.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor Liza Vivier is a real South African and knows everything about the area. She was really friendly and helpful and she learnt me a lot about the skills you need to have as a tour operator and a the things that are important in the field of tourism.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent and good English communication skills
Additional company requirements for this placement? you only need to work with MS Office (excel, word and outlook)
English: Advanced

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? meditation company ‘4exchange’
How did you go to work every day? by foot or with uber

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, since you will stay longer than 3 months you need to try to get an Internship VISA. In The Hague you can apply for it, but be aware that it will take a lot of time
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: The South African embassy in The Hague
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? an average of 6 weeks
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? I already had the vaccinations

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

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 650
Accommodation (monthly): € 460
Local transport (monthly): € The costs were very different every month because it depends on what we did in the weekend. We used Uber every day and it is very cheap in South Africa. You pay like 2 euro’s for a 10 minute drive. It think I pay around 100 euro for transport each month. But you need to know that we did everything with uber (weekend trips, going out, shopping ect.)
General costs of living (monthly): € The costs of living are lower than in the Netherlands, especially for food and transport. The general costs of living were very different every month because it depends on the activities I did during the weekend. it think I spend around 250 euros each month on, food, activities, parties and all the other things, and all the money I spend was definitely worth it!
Costs of visa: € A visa is 35 euro’s but there are also other costs like a ‘Verklaring Omtrend Getrag’ and the fuel or train tickets to The Hague (need to go 3 times)
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? I got a monthly compensation of ZAR2500 (around 150 euro)

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not prepare a lot for this internship. I talked with some friends who have been to Cape Town and I read some articles about it.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? There are South African, French and Polish people in the office, which is very nice to work with.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 162177@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: For sure I can recommend people to go to Cape Town. It is a beautiful and enchanting city in one of the most special counties of the world.
I know a lot of people think that Cape Town is not save to live, but is you use your common sense everything is fine and you will see all the beautiful things South Africa has to offer.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Cape Town and the rest of South Africa have so much to offer. Please feel free to contact me about it if you want.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link