Abercrombie & Kent

Placement organization

Name of organization: Abercrombie & Kent
Town/city: South Melbourne in Melbourne
Country: Australië
Website: Abercrombie & Kent

Student

Name of student: Marielle Theuns
Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2019-2020

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour Operator
Organization’s activities: I am working in the Cruise Department that takes care of all the cruise ships that will visit different ports all around Australia
Target group of the organization: High end elderly demographic
Company culture: Everyone is chatty and speaking to you like you are one of the employees instead of an intern. The companies culture is informal. But you have to wear formal clothing.
Number of employees: 100+
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?
Cruise Shore Excursions

Brief description of your daily activities:
– Creating Run sheets
– Book Guides
– Cancel/Confirm Guides
– Travel Studio
– Working at Station Pier (pier of Melbourne) organizing the buses etc.
– Creating actual tours, getting in contact with suppliers to ask for details

Brief description of your company assignment: I had to create several tours that were innovative,suitable for the cruise line and interesting for the demographic for different ports, cruise lines, demographics.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Krystal is my supervisor and she is a very caring person. Always willing to help and you can contact her any time. Will check up on you every now and then and asks if you have enough work and if everything is okay with you in general. Moreover all your colleagues will be very helpful and chatty.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, flexible when it comes to port days, team player, stress proof in high season
Additional company requirements for this placement? Excel, Word, Office 365
English: Advanced

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? AirBnB
How did you go to work every day? I walked for 20 minutes every day

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, a working Holiday Visa
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Via the Governments website
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 30 min
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
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? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 975 euro
Accommodation (monthly): € 530 euro
Local transport (monthly): € 0 euro
General costs of living (monthly): € 1200 euro, but I traveled a lot in Australia
Costs of visa: € 300 euro
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? You will get 300 dollars every week, but without taxes etc you will receive 1020 dollars every month

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not prepare, because the culture is similar to ours (Netherlands)
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: marielletheuns1@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do:

DO: enjoy your placement and your time in Melbourne, you”ll wink twice with your eyes and it’s over. Try to do as many trips on the weekend (and extend your weekend with an extra day off). I was travelling all the time so I did a lot of things such as The Grampians, Phillip Island, Uluru (The big red rock), The Great Ocean Road, Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, Tasmania, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and I even go to New Zealand the last two weeks before I get back to the Netherlands. The Country is amazing so try to do as much as you can!

DONT: Sit at home and sleep :p

Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place:
– The Grampians
– Philip Island (penguins)
– Mornigton Peninsula
– Wilson’s Promontory
– ST Kilda beach
– The Great Ocean Road
– Party in CBD
– Go to festivals
– A lot of activities will take place in the city

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