Asian Heritage Treks & Travels

Placement organization

Name of organization: Asian Heritage Treks & Travels
Town/city: Kathmandu
Country: Nepal
Website: https://www.asianheritagetreks.com/

Student

Name of student: Britt

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator/travel agency

Organization’s activities: Asian Heritage offers many tours to Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. Besides the well-known HImalaya expeditions they also offer many other activities in Nepal.
Target group of the organization: Western travellers

Company culture: The Company culture is a hierachy but in a relaxed way. The boss is in charge and most of the decisions have to be discussed with him but responsibility and initiative of the intern are highly appreciated. The Nepalese have long working days and 6 days a week so all colleagues spend much time together. After a few months in my internship the organisation decided to make company t-shirts with the logo for everyone to wear. Besides that the clothing standard is casual as long as you were long pants.
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?

A bit of everything; customer service, marketing, website development.

Brief description of your daily activities: Daily activities managed was checking the website on the level of English, replying to travel inquiries, social media marketing managament and working with Travelife, as sustainable company that gives guiding for a company to get sustainable.
Brief description of your company assignment: As I was working to get the sustainable certification of Travelife I made a company assignment that explained in detail all the steps that need to be taken in able to create a sustainable company.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervisor is such a nice man and he makes you feel very welcome. However, he is not always in the office to guide you.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement: Independent, flexibel and initiative taking.
Additional company requirements for this placement: writing skills
English: Advanced

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, just a tourist Visa
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: embassy
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? a few minutes
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? I thought I had all my vaccinations but i found out a day before my departure one was expired. So the morning of my flight I went to the travel clinic to get my last vaccination.

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): ?
Accommodation (monthly): € 200 p.p (appartment for two, 400 in total)
Local transport (monthly): I do not remember (very cheap)
General costs of living (monthly): Including the rent I spend around 500 euro’s monthly
Costs of visa: 100 euro’s plus another 100 euro’s to extend the visa.
Costs of work permit: none
What did the company pay for/to you? Lunch was included.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not prepare for the culture as I have much travel experience in Asia already. All I did was reading travel journeys of Nepal.
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: brittvergunst@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Be aware that Kathmandu is a big and dirty city and in the city the mountains feel quite far away. Also the culture is so important in the country so be open-minded and let it inspire you.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: In Kathamandu itself there are many cultural sites to visit. Besides that there are some posibilities for beautiful day hikings in Kathmandu area. For the real Himalaya experience you need longer than just a weekend but that is definitly worth it.

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