Tailor Made Safaris

Placement organization

Name of organization: Tailor Made Safaris
Town/city: St Lucia
Country: Zuid-Afrika

Student

Name of student: Lotte van der Wielen

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Creating and selling tours in southern Africa
Target group of the organization: middle to high income
Company culture: Informal company culture.
One ceo and one office manager who manage the rest of the team.
Number of employees: 10
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

All departments as it is a small company and most employees work on different ‘departments’

Brief description of your daily activities: Making itineraries, making bookings, making cost calculators, making WETU’s etc.
Brief description of your company assignment: Analyse the current itinerary and the one of competitors, improve ours where necessary
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Most supervision by the office manager but when it comes to the assignment the CEO gave supervision

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, flexible, stress-proof
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS office, 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
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?
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
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? Yes, if English is not advanced

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € 150
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Accommodation was the compensation

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I had already been to South-Africa so was prepared a bit already. Furthermore, I read about the town I was going to to prepare for the internship
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: 163678@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: If the financial means are there, rent a car to be able to see more of the surroundings, it is a very small town so it is nice to discover more besides the town
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Several game reserves such as iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Furthermore there are activities such as the elephant interaction, Cat rehabilitation tour etc.

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