Adore Ecuador Travel

Placement organization

Name of organization: Adore Ecuador Travel
Town/city: Quitp
Country: Ecuador
Website: https://www.adoreecuador.com/

Student

Name of student: Yelith Littooij Nipius

Specialist area: Associate degree
Placement period: 2019-2020

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities:
– Maintaining social media platforms
– Making reservations
– Administrative tasks
– Sales
Target group of the organization: Travelers from The Netherlands, America and Belgium
Company culture: Informal
Number of employees: 5
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? definitely

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

I did a all-round internship. But because there weren’t enough applications I could work on on my own, I did more marketing than sales. In the end I did do some sales tasks but not as many as my colleague Monica, who started in February 2019.

Brief description of your daily activities: Everyday I started with checking the mail inbox for mails. If i got mail i needed to answer that. After this I looked into the agenda to see if i could already send some TripAdviser mails or if we had some reviews that needed to be responded to.
Two times a week I posted content on both, Instagram as Facebook. During these 5 months I made a calendar for the new year (2020) for post about different Holidays and events in Ecuador. When help was needed I helped my colleagues with making reservations for their paxs (clients). Sometimes I got my own pax and worked on that myself.

Brief description of your company assignment: For my business assignment I needed to update the ranking of all the pages of Adore Ecuador. By making a course I could start making some adjustments to the WordPress website. In the end it took to long to finish the whole course and to improve the website to rank higher in Google search. So in the end I made a huge manual for ´how to improve the SEO of Adore Ecuador´. When Adore hires new people they can continue with my work, using the manual. So Margot (founder of Adore) does not need to give the new employees courses to understand how to update and optimize the SEO of Adore Ecuador Travel.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Margot is a really honest person and gives you advise when she sees that you can improve more. That she is honest you can see in my two evaluation forms. She is also very flexible and is really open mined. When you have new ideas or thing you (as an intern) think need to be changed or improved, she will always take the time to listen and gives you the opportunity to show her why it is better. After she will give an honest opinion about your idea or improvement.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, team payer, social, flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French: Basic
German: Basic

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? The company recommended some places
How did you go to work every day? by foot (30 min), sometimes by taxi (15 min)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Student visa, but is also possible to request one after 90 days in the country
Do you need a work permit? no.
How did you arrange the necessary documents: embassy in the hague
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 2 week, they say this can take a long time but if you call and mail them every day you can manage to arrange it in 2/2,5 week instead of 4 weeks
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? 2/3 weeks

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, as soon you learn some basic words by yourself before you start it is oke. Here in Ecuador you can easily take a lessons for much cheaper than in The Netherlands. I do recommend to take classes during your staying, because not many people do speak English so you need to learn it.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 900
Accommodation (monthly): € 300
Local transport (monthly): € +/- 30
General costs of living (monthly): € 150
Costs of visa: € 130 visa + 45 VOG
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Because the company only exists for 2 years they do not have a big budged. I got 150 dollars a month. Monica my colleague, she did not get anything, so step by step the company tries to make some budget for the interns.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Actually I did not do anything, I tried to not have any expectations and tried to go with an open mind. I read and heard a lot about robbers and pickpockets and that at night it is not safe on the streets. Of course it is important to know what is happening but i did not get any of this. You will see more homeless people (mainly form Venezuela ) one the streets and the city is not as modern as in Europe but i honestly can say it is not as worse as you will read and hear. Adore is located at Parque Carolina and is in the North of the city (modern part.) Even during the strikes and the political unstable situation i did not get anything of this. So in the end i really recommend this place, it is so beautiful, the mountains, the beach and amazon. I loved it!
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? not at all

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I recommend to visit as much during your days off. Because before you know there is no time to travel. When traveling by bus you need to make sure NOT to put your bags above you because than the change to get robbed is really big. You will think that it will not happen to me or how are they going to do this while i am awake, i can tell you they are manage to do it even if you have your phone in your hand.
The Last thing i recommend is to go to the jungle, it was such an amazing experience. And Because you work at Adore you can get a discount!!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The surroundings of Quito are incredible. The old part of the city (el centro historico) is beautiful as well. Much thing to do in and surround the city.

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