Destination Bristol

Placement organization

Name of organization: Destination Bristol
Town/city: Bristol
Country: Groot-Brittannië
Website: https://visitbristol.co.uk

Student

Name of student: Lisa de Nooijer

Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: DMO
Organization’s activities: Destination Bristol works together with businesses in and around Bristol to promote the city to leisure and business tourists. They also arrange press visits for journalists and influencers, organise familiarisation trips for tour operators and host & attend travel trade events.
Target group of the organization: Leisure and business tourists
Company culture: Destination Bristol is led by a CEO. The tourism departments in the company are led by head of tourism, Kathryn. I don’t experience a formal atmosphere in the office and the hierarchy isn’t very important, everyone is very friendly and they all work together, regardless of their position.
Number of employees: 17
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?
Marketing

Brief description of your daily activities: The company arranged a lot of member visits for me during my placement. I got to see most of the main tourist attractions and a few hotels. Very fun but also important for your job as you are constantly writing about Destination Bristol’s members. In the office most of my activities had to do with the Visit Bristol website. I would upload events, add special offers and I did a lot of website optimisation; going through the most visited pages and improving them, adding text, links, photos. I also worked on a new campaign where I researched special tourist experiences and added them to the website. Besides that I was in charge of the marketing email, posted and scheduled posts on social media and wrote blogs. There were also always a few smaller tasks to be done, such as researching events for holidays, contacting members to request information or confirming bookings for the press team. Lastly there were a lot of opportunities to do things out of the office. I attended several travel trade events, went to press visits to take photos, delivered media packs to hotels. I personally really liked this as sitting in the office 40 hours a week can get a little boring.
Brief description of your company assignment: I set up a visitor survey for tourists staying in Bristol to collect more information about their travel behaviour and help Destination Bristol with their targeting.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor wasn’t in the office a lot as she is very busy and attending many events on behalf of Destination Bristol, but the people in the marketing team would always help me with anything I needed.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, flexible, good English skills (writing skills especially)
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, writing skills. Skills regarding the website will be taught.
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? Arranged it myself but my supervisor sent me useful links and information.
How did you go to work every day? Bus

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No (might change when Brexit happens though?)
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

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? I’d recommend it if your English skills aren’t great. You’re constantly writing on the website and in emails, so good English skills are a must.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 150
Accommodation (monthly): € 500
Local transport (monthly): € 50
General costs of living (monthly): € 300-400
Costs of visa:  –
Costs of work permit: –
What did the company pay for/to you? The company does not offer financial compensation as they are a non-profit organisation. However, they arranged free entry to many tourist attractions and often offer free tickets to events. You will be eligible for the highest Erasmus grant as the UK is in the category of most expensive countries to live.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I have friends in the UK and spend a lot of time there so I was already very familiar with the country. But I don’t think British culture is very different from Dutch, the only thing I would say is that the British are more polite and not as direct as we are.
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: 162914@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Destination Bristol often give you the possibility to go on a visit or attend an event, I would recommend taking these chances. I attended a networking event in my first week and although it was a bit intimidating, I learned a lot about the tourism industry in South West England. If you would ever like to join an event, learn to do something different, write a blog about something just let them know, they are very flexible and want you to have a good experience during your placement.

Also tell them what your interest are, they will keep that in mind with any tasks they assign you. For example, I mentioned I love music and going to concerts in my interview so whenever there were any task to do with music they’d keep me in mind. During my placement the team asked me to research concerts and festivals happening in the city, asked me to upload full listings of concert venues as events onto the website, asked me to write a blog related to music, and I was able to join a meeting with the head of one of the city’s music venues. It was great that I got to mix my work with my interests.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: I have friends in England so I’ve travelled the country quite a lot, but Bristol is definitely my favourite place in the UK. I think it’s very different from the other big cities, it’s very diverse, it’s a big city but not too busy, it has many different cultures, great food & drink and it’s an amazing place for art and music enthusiasts. There’s always something going on in the city and since there are two universities, there’s a lot of young people and many pubs, bars, clubs to go party if that’s what you’re looking for. Besides that there are a lot of tourist attractions which you will most likely visit during your placement, such as the SS Great Britain, Bristol Zoo and many interesting museums. Bristol is also known for its street art, Banksy is from Bristol and his work can be seen throughout the whole city. Since your job will involve writing about attractions and the latest events, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of fun things to do.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link