NBTC Holland Marketing

Placement organization

Name of organization: NBTC Holland Marketing
Town/city: Köln
Country: Duitsland
Website: https://www.nbtc.nl/en/home.htm

Student

Name of student: Franziska Below

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Organisation
Organization’s activities: NBTC is all about the development, branding and marketing of the Netherlands as a destination. The organisation provides a national vision for tourism based on relevant knowledge and insights and use this vision to connect, facilitate and support cities, regions, business owners and other parties.
NBTC’s main activities are divided amongst four core tasks:
1. Intell & Insights
2. Strategy & Branding
3. Destination Development
5. Marketing
The office in Cologne is marketing the destination to the German market.
Target group of the organization: NBTC has several target groups (which are described on their website)
Company culture: It is a hierarchical yet very informal company culture. You do not adress colleagues with the formal German ‘Sie’, but with the ‘Du’. We always got lunch together and also talked about private matters so it was not formal at all. Also during work-hours we could chat, but you always knew when it was time to be a bit more formal or serious.

Additionally, the office does not shy away from after work activties. For instance, we went bowling one night or celebrated ‘Karneval’ in the office building with other firms as you can see on the picture ;-).
Number of employees: Cologne: 3 (+2 employees) NBTC in total: roughly 70
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes (even though they did not have a Marketing department anymore and this is the department/position I applied for)

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Marketing/Travel Trade

Brief description of your daily activities: (I did not have regular and continous daily activities)
Supporting the Travel Trade department:
– supporting the planning of the ITB

Supporting the Marketing department:
– conceptualizing marketing concept ideas
– benchmarking
– translations

Supporting the Press/PR department:
– conducting smaller researches for journalists
– correcting website articles

+ backoffice and post

Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment was a competitor analysis. I worked towards determining potential opportunities/barriers within their market through monitoring/analyzing the ways their competitors are managing their target market through marketing activities and product distribution (focused on a specific target market).

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I was really pleased by the supervision by my supervisors (Diana and Michael) and all other colleagues. I always knew that I could ask questions and the support (even during COVID-19) was really great!

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? accuracy, stress-proff, independent, team player, flexible & sociable
Additional company requirements for this placement? writing and translations skills, creative mindset & out-of-the-box thinking
English: Intermediate
German: Mother tongue
Other languages: Dutch (Intermediate to Advanced)

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Car

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I arranged my accommodation myself through Facebook and an app called ‘WG Gesucht’
How did you go to work every day? As I lived only a couple of minutes away from the office, I was able to walk (max. 5 minutes)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: –
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? –
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? If you do not speak/understand any of the languages above, I would recommend a language course/fresh-up.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € –
Accommodation (monthly): € €450
Local transport (monthly): € –
General costs of living (monthly): € around €200
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? I received an amount of €300 each month (February until April). For the months of May and June I am paid the German average wage, which is €9,35 at the moment.

Additional: The company is also open to compensate public transportation costs.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
As I am German, I did not need to prepare for the culture.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Not really

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 173287@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do not be shy! Show initiative, be confident in your skills and the tasks you carry out – especially when it comes to creative tasks.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Cologne is a very open and vibrant city. It is a big student city, with a lot of parks, night life and sports possibilities, as well as festivities – but keep in mind that Cologne is indeed a big city!

Try to get a room early, as it is really tough to find a reasonably priced room, which is not too far away! If you struggle, you can also contact your company supervisor, as they might be able to assist you.

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