Kingfisher Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: Kingfisher Tours
Town/city: Luxor
Country: Afrika
Website: https://kingfishertours.com/

Student

Name of student: Celine Slots

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Kingfisher Tours is a Dutch/Egyptian company creating and executing tailor-made travel proposals for mainly Dutch and Belgian tourists. The company organizes mainly individual round trips through Egypt. A few times a year they organize a group round trip as well. Besides that, Kingfisher Tours organizes day and 2-day trips from hotels along the Red Sea to Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel.
Target group of the organization: Dutch/Belgian tourists
Company culture: The company can be divided in an operational department and a marketing/sales/project department. Besides the fixed employees, Kingfisher Tours cooperates with quite some freelancers on both the marketing side, as well as the operational side. Furthermore, the company culture is very informal and relaxed. Everyone works well together and enjoys his/her job within Kingfisher Tours.
Number of employees: 8 fixed employees
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes, absolutely.

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

You will be working within the operational department at the office in Luxor, Egypt. Together with Miriam Kok, the co-founder of the company. If you desire so, you can also involve in the marketing/sales process and for example contribute to writing new blogs which will be posted on the website.

Brief description of your daily activities: Your main tasks will probably be making the new hotel reservations, updating the hotel planning and activity planning in Google Drive and communicating any last-minute changes or extra information with the coordinators in Cairo, Luxor or Aswan. Furthermore, you will learn to create new tailor-made travel proposals. Communicating with guests before and during their trip by means of emailing, phoning or ‘real-life’ meetings, is part of the job as well.
Brief description of your company assignment: As a company assignment I did a pre-feasibility study (market, organisational and financial feasibility) related to the implementation of a new group round trip for single-parent families. This mainly involved desk research, conversations with the co-founder of the company and I created an online survey which was distributed among guests of Kingfisher Tours.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision and tips/feedback of Miriam really helped me so much. She is a great coach and she is genuinely motivated to educate and train young professionals. I learned a lot, both professional and personal things and without Miriam’s great supervision my placement would have been a lot less interesting and not that big of learning experience it was now.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Team player, independent, enthusiasm
Additional company requirements for this placement? Communication skills, basic Excel skills (not required but handy)
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch, Advanced in both written and spoken

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? By foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: By arrival at the airport
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 5 minutes
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance?

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? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € € 180
Accommodation (monthly): €
Local transport (monthly): € € 5
General costs of living (monthly): € € 150
Costs of visa: € € 25
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation and lunch during working days.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I had been to Egypt already many times, so I already knew a lot about the country and its culture. Egyptians are mainly Muslim and a small percentage is Coptic Christen. Since Luxor is a traditional city, it is obliged/respectful to adapt to the dress code. Which mainly means long trousers, blouses/tops with long sleeves and not with a deep cut-out around the chest area… I recommend to always bring a thin scarf to cover up a bit more if you’re visiting areas in which you feel it’s necessary.
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: celineslots@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Visit Cairo and definitely Aswan. The last one is my favorite city in Egypt.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Not that many to be honest. But you have the possibility to go to a cafe or so-called local ‘theetuin’. Furthermore I spend a lot of time with my colleagues as well. I also visited other cities/places in my weekends. However, it is best if you don’t mind to spend time by yourself as well.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link