German National Tourism Board Paris Office

Placement organization

Name of organization: German National Tourism Board Paris Office
Town/city: Paris
Country: Frankrijk
Website: https://www.germany.travel/fr/home.html

Student

Name of student: Rebecca Giesenschlag
Specialist area: Tourism Management (NL)
Placement period: 2021-2022

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: DMO/NTO
Organization’s activities: The German National Tourism Board, is the central marketing organisation for the travel destination Germany. They operate as an association on behalf of the German federal government, promoting Germany as a travel destination and attractive brand internationally. The Paris office represents the German National Tourism Board in the French market.
Target group of the organization: French outbound travellers
Company culture: The company culture is semi-formal. Everyone adresses eachother with informally (du / tu) but a degree of formality is still maintained. The dress code is business casual. The organisation is very structured and there are a lot of processes behind every step. All major activites and external communications need to be approved by the main office in Germany
Number of employees: 5 (+3 intern) in the Paris Office
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Social Media Marketing but there are also internship positions in PR and General Marketing.

Brief description of your daily activities: Daily activities vary depending on what I am assigned by my supervisor (or other managers), but mostly included:

• Community Management of Social Media Accounts
• Planning of media content for Facebook
• Assisting in creating concept, sales and performance review presentations for Social Media Campaigns and Influencer Trips
• Assisting in organising and planning influencer trips
Brief description of your company assignment: Competitor analysis of other DMOs/NTOs in the french market, with a special focus on their social media activities
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I have a direct supervisor, the Social Media Manager. We work together and I assist her in general activities. Sometimes the interns are also assigned tasks from the general manager or other managers.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Good communication skills, eye fo detail, professionalism, taking initative,
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, affinity for Social Media
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French: Advanced
German: Mother tongue
Italian:
Other languages: You need to be fluent in German and French. You will have to communicate on a professional level with French and German partners on a daily basis and the internal communication is also mostly both languages. Some communiation is also done in English, so an intermediate level of English is also recquired.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Yourself
How did you go to work every day? Public Transport

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? You need a pretty advanced level of French and German, so if you feel like a language course could help you I would definetly recommend it.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 100€
Accommodation (monthly): € 600€
Local transport (monthly): € 75€ for a monthly metro ticket
General costs of living (monthly): € 700€
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation of around 600€ per month
50% of the metro pass is reimburshed

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
already knew French culture somewhat, but I can recommend watching series on Netflix or following some Instagram accounts. This way you have some language immersion and also learn about the culture.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? It was definetly noticable that German and French people have a different way of working.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 190205@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Start as early as possible looking for a place to stay and be prepared to spend more than you normally would. Paris is a very expensive city,
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Paris of course offers a huge amount of activities. I can recommend following some guides on Instagram such as @parissecret @vivreaparis or @leguideultime.
From Paris, it is also super easy to travel the rest of France by train. You can be in the south of France in 3 hours and in many other cities such as Lille or Rennes in less than two.

Media