Cultural Immersion

Placement organization

Name of organization: Cultural Immersion
Town/city: Cusco
Country: Peru
Website: http://www.culturalimmersion.org/

Student

Name of student: Sophie Bes

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Travel agency
Organization’s activities: Organise luxurious trips all around Peru, cooking classes, bike tours…
Target group of the organization: US seniors
Company culture: Cultural Immersion is a 14 years old travel agency located in Cusco, Peru. Created by Eduardo Becerra
Pimentel, a very innovative, creative and sustainable thinking Cusco habitant. The company has always stayed real and small with no more than 10 people in the operating system. They specialize in private adventures for independent travellers interested in unique experiences. Their vision is for the client to live a real cultural immersion visiting Peru, connecting with the culture, the people and the history.
The company has some unique selling points, mainly is that clients can have a unique cultural
adventure at local communities and take part in their everyday life. Clients have the freedom of being in a totally private tour and spend as much time as desired in their favourite places. They can make their vacation a journey of a life-time and create their dream itinerary. All the tours are a 100% customizable and can start on any date. They can modify any of the packages to better fit their needs.
The company’s goal is to provide the experience that best suits the client interests.
The main market of this company is North American countries, more specifically the USA, married
couples between 40 to 60 years old.
The company is divided in four different brands, the main one is Cultural Immersion which creates the private tours, and they offer day tours, long tours (6-15 days), private and shared tours. I would describe it as an overall luxurious travel agency, however they always propose 3 different options (economic, medium and luxury) where clients can fit their economic preferences.
Another brand of the company is Cusco Culinary where they offer cooking classes, 2 classes per day, morning (for lunch) and afternoon (for dinner), they can be private or shared with no more than 15 people per class. Then the Cusco Biking Tours that goes hand by hand with the bar Eduardo owns called Wasicleta, where he tried to motivate people to use bicycle in the day to day and develop sustainable transportation. They offer 6 types of tours by bike around Cusco with different levels of difficulty. The most popular one so far is the Cusco Biking Tour + Pisco sour class, which people can discover Cusco in a private bike session, with Eduardo as a guide.
Finally the company owns and also offers a little hotel in Maras, an hour away from Cusco for clients that participate in some of Cultural Immersion tours, called Villas de Maras.
Number of employees: 6
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working: Sales department

Brief description of your daily activities: My place in the company is in the sales department. I am in contact with the clients if they have any questions/requests and I answer to their reservations. I then link it to the reservation centre to check if there is availability. I then send the itineraries to the client after the confirmation. I work for 3 different brands of the company which offers bike tours, cooking classes and tours (from day tours to 15 days tours). This company mainly works with North American passages, especially USA and Canada therefore I mainly work in English.
I start every morning at 8 am and finish at 17h with 1h break for lunch at 13h and two Saturdays per month until 12h. I work in the sales department with another girl. I have to check 3 different mail boxes from the 3 different brands we sell. What I focus on especially is Viator, where people make reservations though TripAdvisor and I have to manage them, reply to the costumer and add it on the system before sending it to the reservation centre. Reservation centre sends me the confirmation of the availability of the tour/hotels, I then book it and confirm it to the clients. Since it is a personalized tour operator, if the client has special requests I have to write them all down and make the itinerary exactly how they expect it to be. Finally, when the passenger finally arrives in Cusco, I am always going to make a welcome with some presents we have for them and we offer some coca tea (to help with the altitude sickness) and a little snack. I also talk with them and explain to them their itinerary and how everything is going to go, with the help of their private guide, Alvaro. This is one of my favourite part because it is when I get to meet the customer and share some moments with them, they usually also like it because they “finally put a face on me”. They are usually very pleased about this little welcoming and feel more at ease to talk to me if they have any question etc…
I also work for the cooking class part, Cusco Culinary, where bookings can come from Airbnb,
TripAdvisor, agencies or the Cusco Culinary website. I have to make the same thing as Viator, reply to the customer, add it to the system and tell the chef when and what food restrictions the clients have.
Finally, I work for the Cusco Biking Tours which is basically the same process. I also help  colleague if she needs help with writing emails in ‘good English’ and I check if all the passengers have paid their tours with the excel files at the end of every month.
The last month I have been commissioned to take care of a new tool on Airbnb called the multi-day experiences. Which Airbnb has contacted us to start making them and I have been taking care of it.
Basically I upload all of our tours on Airbnb and it takes a long time to make every tour day by day. As extra activities I would add, that I take care of some little chores that nobody wants to do such as, going to buy a cake for the birthday of a client or picking up some clients when the chef can’t for the
cooking classes…

Brief description of your company assignment: I carried out a strategic marketing plan due to the current problem of this company. The actual management problem of Cultural Immersion is the lack of marketing presence, especially online. Took the initial steps towards a strategic marketing plan, and see how it could help the company. I will be investigating the whole problem starting by analyzing deeply the company internally, as well as the external factors, in order to make the SWOT analysis and draw some recommendations and solutions in order to boost the company. This marketing strategy plan is going to help us to make a zoom on an interesting topic, in the “social media marketing” strategy, that is lacking to this company and find a solution. Wanting to attract more customers without existing on social media can be a big problem, living in the 21st century and we are going to have further look on why this is a problem for our current times and especially in this industry. In order to carry on with this problem, is it essential to ask ourselves questions in order to find answers.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: It was good and they gave me their time to do it.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? good spanish, quick reaction, sociable
Additional company requirements for this placement?
English: Advanced
Spanish: Advanced

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? By myself and with a friend i made there.
How did you go to work every day? By foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, until 180 days
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: No
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? None
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance? No

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? Yes. Spanish is important

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): +/- 1200 euros
Accommodation (monthly): 140 euros
Local transport (monthly): 10 euros
General costs of living (monthly): 400 euros
Costs of visa: €-
Costs of work permit: €-
What did the company pay for/to you? They payed me 250 euros a month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not prepare but I had family living there so it was easier to have an idea of what it would look like. However Cusco was very different and unique culture.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: sophie.33@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I would not recommend this company if you do not speak spanish and you do not adapt to places easly.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: A lot of Inca history therefore, ruins all around the city. Beautiful hikes to mountains and lakes.
Jungle is not too far if you have time!

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