Nordic Unique Travels

Placement organization

Name of organization: Nordic Unique Travels
Town/city: Rovaniemi
Country: Finland
Website: https://nordictravels.eu/en/ 

Student

Name of student: Nieusha Shirvany

Specialist area: Tourism Management (NL)
Placement period: 2020-2021

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: travel agency
Organization’s activities: Nordic Unique Travels specializes in tailored tours based in the Nordic countries. They have many partnerships with local hotels tour operators. The main focus is the European and Asian markets. The Spanish and the French markets are the biggest.
Target group of the organization: Europe (Italian, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swiss, Austrian) and Asia
Company culture: The company’s culture is more informal than formal. You can call your colleagues by their first name and there is no need to dress up formally. Due to corona, I worked most of the time from home so I haven’t met many colleagues. But they are always willing to help.
Number of employees: 10
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 worked in the sales-department and my focus point was the Dutch/Belgian market.

Brief description of your daily activities: My tasks were mainly replying to incoming messages from customers through a platform called Evaneos. When a customer wanted to book within Nordic Unique Travels, I had to ask beforehand what their needs were and what kind of activities they wanted to do. Based on this information, I made a tailor-made trip for the customer. Due to corona, I was busier with cancellations and postponements. Besides my main task, Sini (the CEO) gave me more tasks to work on.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment was the assignment for the Associate Degree.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I had to send daily reports to Sini since I worked mainly from home. Alita always checked on me if everything was alright. I could call her at any time. Mickey was my colleague for the financial part of my job. All communication went through Whatsapp or call.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, stress-proof, patient
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS office, writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch – Native language

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? By foot

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? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € €400 (Excl. coronatests)
Accommodation (monthly): € €650
Local transport (monthly): € €0
General costs of living (monthly): € €300
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? They paid me €75 a month because I didn’t stay in the company apartment. Since I worked from home, they paid me lunch money instead of lunch. This was €10 a day.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Learn some basic Finnish words in Duolingo and read up about the country on Google.
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: 193494@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: You need to have an EU right of residence if you are staying in Finland longer than 3 months. You apply for this online and go to the Migri (immigration) office so that they can check it. It costs €54. Besides that, I got monthly payments from the company, so I needed a tax card. You can apply for this at Vero (tax) office. Because I got paid, my Dutch health insurance wasn’t suddenly valid anymore. No one told me about this beforehand, so you have to find another way to have health insurance.

Also, you need warm clothes! Merino wool is recommended.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Ounasvaara (hiking place near the city)
Santa Claus Village
Museums
Watch northern lights
Going for a sauna
Skiing/snowboarding

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link