Australian Wildlife Adventures

Placement organization

Name of organization: Australian Wildlife Adventures
Town/city: Port Kenny
Country: Australië
Website: http://australianwildlifeadventures.com.au/

Student

Name of student: Sebastiaan Daleboudt

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator
Organization’s activities: Australian Wildlife Adventures offers tours in South and West Australia in all different types. Their main tour is a 10 day adventure trip from Adelaide to Perth, where 4000km will be covered. They have two brands, one is the 3,5-star or more Xplore Eyre brand and the other is Nullarbor Traveller, the budget brand.
Target group of the organization: Different target groups, the backpackers but also the high-class market
Company culture: Hassie & Jo are the owners of the company. They are friendly, kind and always there to help you with everything. You become part of the family during the internship as the office is next to your bedroom. You live at Coodlie Park, which is a 1200 hectares big property with a campground, private beach and an amazing nature which is full of suprises again and again. Also owned by them. Next to that, there are two managers and several guides of the tours. AWA has an operation manager in Adelaide and a business develop & marketing manager located in Melbourne.
Number of employees: 4
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

As Australian Wildlife Adventures is a small company, you will work for every single department and so you get a look into all parts of a business.

Brief description of your daily activities: Everything what had to do with the organisation of all tours of both brands of Australian Wildlife Adventures:
> First weeks you go on tour to learn the product(s)!
> Helping out costumers, stakeholders and agents (phone, e-mail and reception)
> Creating and processing bookings
> Generate statistics for both brands (passenger numbers, seller statistics and more)
> Doing administration (financial, operational, paperwork of tours etc.)
> Preparation for tours (Inform guide, making up manifests, checking tour arrangements, helping out participants when confirming their tour and more)
> Keeping the campground and accommodation of Coodlie Park tidy
> Welcoming the tours who arrive at Coodlie Park
> Showing people around
> Administrational preparation for new season 2019/2020
> Creating promotional video content for products
> Determine departure dates for season 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 and load them in Rezdy (booking reservation software system)
> Finishing up the financial year for tax purposes
> Tasks to improve SEO scores for websites of all brands, task provided by SEO company/agency and marketing manager
> Organising private tours (booking flights, accommodations, activities and more)
> Giving recommendations or thoughts about subjects/procedures and more
> And more…
Brief description of your company assignment: For my company assignment, I had to review the 2018/2019 season and generate a stats report with all facts and figures. This included passenger numbers, booking sources, nationalities and more. At the end of my report I had to give my recommendations. For one of the two brands there were no statistics at all so now the company can go further on and make decisions for the future and review the past.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Hassie was my boss and also my supervisor during my internship. He was always there if you needed any help and he appreciated all the things you do for him and its company. He gave feedback, but also feed forward.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, sociable, flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, especially Excel
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Plane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Company
How did you go to work every day? Foot, office is next to your bedroom!

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, a working holiday visa
Do you need a work permit? Combination with your visa
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Australian Government Department of home affairs (Online)
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? Few hours
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? Your english will expand a lot during your internship. I had just an intermediate level of English before my internship started.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1000-1500
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € 100
Costs of visa: € 300
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation and food.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I read some information online and also bought the Lonely Planet Australia Edition.
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: 163472@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: As Australian Wildlife Adventures is a small company, you will get a look into all parts of a business. For me this was very useful because it has given me a complete view of how a business operates in the tourism industry. Your level of English will be improved a lot as you talk and write in English every and all day.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Coodlie Park has a amazing private beach. There are also some nice spots in the surroundings to visit.

Media