Good Travel Guide

Placement organization

Name of organization: Good Travel Guide
Town/city: Leiden
Country: Nederland
Website: https://goodtravel.guide/

Student

Name of student: Kalina Spasova
Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2021-2022

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Non-profit organisation
Organization’s activities: Good Travel Guide is a trademark of Green Destinations and is committed to contribute to a more responsible tourism by sharing inspiring stories with travellers on places, businesses and people that are already acting. They use storytelling to promote sustainable destinations and good practice stories that are already awarded, certified and recognise by their certification program. The Good Travel Guide offers different kind of certifications for sustainable destination that comply with their criteria and also promotes the destinations through their website and social media.
Target group of the organization: Green Travellers (20 to 35 years old)
Company culture: The company culture is quite informal and the team is very international. The team consists of people from all around the world (Europe, Asia, America and etc.).
Number of employees: 15
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Business development and Marketing

Brief description of your daily activities: My daily activities involve:
– promoting the certified destinations and business through social media marketing
-developing partnerships with external partners that could contribute to the promotion of the certified destination and business and communicating with them
-establishing partnership plan for communicating with the partners
-developing a business development plan for the website and making offers to the already certified destinations and businesses for their positioning on the website
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment is to develop a partnership plan that could contribute to the promotion of the certified businesses and destinations and make a research of potential partners that could contribute to that mission
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My placement is currently held online and we use Slack as a communication platform. At the beginning of your day, you have to check in through the platform and start performing your weekly tasks. Four times per week we have a meeting with the supervisor who checks the process of the work and provide us with feedback. My supervisor was very helpful through out the process and helped me a lot to develop my skills in marketing and taught me how to communicate and work with partners.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, good verbal and non-verbal communication, team player, performable
Additional company requirements for this placement? Social media knowledge and marketing knowledge
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: My placement was online so I didn’t use a transport to reach the office.

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I was staying at my family house because the placement was online
How did you go to work every day? I was at home

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? Since English is the only required language no, but it is always preferable to know an additional language since most of the destinations that the company is working with are not speaking English.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 0
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € 0
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? I didn’t receive a financial compensation because they are an NGO/ Foundation.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
The company is based in the Netherlands so I was already used to the Dutch culture.
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: 184247@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I recommend to be yourself and have patience in the process. Always ask questions so you can get out the most from your learning process. Everyone in the company is friendly and always happy to help. Be pro active and make sure to stick to the deadlines.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: I cannot recommend because my placement is online and I I’m in my home country.

Media