Nature Trail – Travels & Tours, Trekking & Expeditions

Placement organization

Name of organization: Nature Trail – Travels & Tours, Trekking & Expeditions
Town/city: Kathmandu
Country: Nepal

Student

Name of student: Tommaso Farina

Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2019-2020

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: tour operator & travel agency
Organization’s activities:
– Holiday Trips, Tours & Trekking in Nepal, India, Bhutan & Tibet.
– Climbing and Expeditions
– Wildlife safari
– Outdoor sports (rafting, bungee jumping, canyoning, golf)
– Scenic flights (mountain flights)
– Birdwatching
Target group of the organization: International adventure seekers in Nepal & travel agencies in Western countries
Company culture: The company culture is very informal and friendly. There is no pressure put on the intern. Most of the time colleagues speak between them in Nepali and don’t really engage you in their conversations.
Number of employees: 25
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Not to a full extent, but yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?
Social media marketing and Sustainable Travel modes

Brief description of your daily activities: Creating social media content and analyzing with ‘insights’ the results (facebook and instagram)
Go with the company’s camera to take pictures and videos of Kathmandu and Nepal
Create video content for marketing
Looking for sustainable methods and travel modes
School assignments
Other day to day activities
Sometimes handling clients that can’t speak English and are from France, Spain or Italy

Brief description of your company assignment: Developing a detailed company study to help understand the future tourist scenario in the long-term so that the Nature Trail will still be competitive in the travel industry.
Development of a sustainable travel model, working on eco-tourism and sustainable practices that Nature Trail could adopt to enhance its environmentally friendly mission.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I am very free to work on my own work however I want. There are no deadlines with the office that put pressure on you. The supervisor is there whenever you need him, but he will never ask you if you have finished your work on time or give you more tasks

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? indipendent, flexible, patient, easy to adapt.
Additional company requirements for this placement? n.a.
English: Intermediate
Other languages: Knowing other languages may help with clients who struggle with english

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself, the company helped the first 10 days
How did you go to work every day? foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? yes, 90 day visa + extension of 60 days
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: On arrival
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 1 hour because of the crowd
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? 1 month

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? Some Nepali knowledge helps you, also because it is more difficult to scam you when you buy something

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € €700
Accommodation (monthly): € €100
Local transport (monthly): € €5
General costs of living (monthly): € €200
Costs of visa: € €200
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? First 10 days of accommodation and breakfast as soon as I arrived

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
For the placement plan I had to do a lot of research on google and youtube. However, most of the insights come from walking around and going with the flow once in the destination. It is necessary to adapt to their culture, if you keep a western mind-set it is difficult to live
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, there was little work with no real task assignment

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 172624@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Get out of your mind the western mentality and be prepared to dive in a total different world. The work-ethics is different and much more laid back than back home, that might be good but you won’t learn too much. That is why find yourself other experiences to learn from a ‘life’ point of view. Don’t be scared to visit places, Nepal is a safe country. Walk around without a destination to find the real Nepali experience. Make friends with locals and eat local food, it’s cheap and good. Get involved in as many things as possible and don’t just sit on the chair and ‘accept’ your destiny.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There are many possibilities. You can go to visit many unique sights such as stupas and temples, durbar squares, and other religious sights. If you are looking for meditation, yoga and spiritual awakening this is also a good country. There are also many wall climbing for bouldering or line climbing, as well as futsal pitches. Lastly go trekking, it will be the best experience ever and the company allows you to go at least once

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