Diethelm Travel Malaysia

Placement organization

Name of organization: Diethelm Travel Malaysia
Town/city: Kuala Lumpur
Country: Maleisië
Website: https://www.diethelmtravel.com/

Student

Name of student: Simone Berg

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Inbound Touroperator
Organization’s activities: Diethelm Travel is an inbound tour operator working in Asia. Diethelm Travel offers 7352 custom tours, they have over 60 years of experience and work in 13 countries in Asia. Their main activity is destination management, serving thousands of quality tour operators in the world and creating experiences for clients.
Diethelm Travel provides destination management services for:
– Hotels
– Tours
– Day tours
– Cruise services
– Transfers
– Guides & Airport representatives
– Ticketing
– Events
Target group of the organization: 85% European guests and 10% Australian and USA
Company culture: There is an informal company culture. The people are nice and always willing to help. Everybody is on first name basis with each other.
Number of employees: 42
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I work in a different department every 5 weeks. The departments are Data management, Operations, Sales & Marketing and Reservations.

Brief description of your daily activities: The daily activities differ per department.
At the Data department I mainly transferred data from the old into the new system, because they were switching to a new system.
At the Operations department my daily activities consisted of preparing welcome kits, making airport banners, checking the bookings in the system, courtesy calls to guests, etc.
My daily activities at Sales & Marketing were mainly preparing itineraries, costing, quotation and product development.
At the reservations department the daily activities consist of managing bookings, meal, transportation and tour arrangements. During low season there is not much to do for interns so you have to take initiative if you want more tasks.

Brief description of your company assignment: Product development and a market analysis of the Dutch and German travel market.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The assistent general manager is my supervisor, but there is not much contact between me and my supervisor as my task are given by the colleagues at every department, the head of each department then assesses me. However, the supervisor is always there when needed.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, teamplayer, social, flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? Basic Word and Excel skills
English: Advanced

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Via Airbnb
How did you go to work every day? Public transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? yes, a temporary student/work permit
Do you need a work permit? yes
How did you arrange the necessary documents: The company arranged this for me
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 3 months
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance? I already had all the necessary vaccinations

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? Only if you don’t speak English

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 700
Accommodation (monthly): € 400
Local transport (monthly): € 10
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
What did the company pay for/to you? A monthly allowance of 800 MYR, which is around 175 Euro’s. The company also paid for the Visa.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not really prepare for the country’s culture since I had already been to Asia several times, but if you have never been to Asia before I would recommend reading about it on the internet.
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: 172097@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Be open-minded and flexible to everything.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is a lot to do in Kuala Lumpur, this city has everything you need. I would recommend to make trips during the weekend, it is cheap and there are amazing places in Malaysia and the countries around.

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