Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC)

Placement organization

Name of organization: Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC)
Town/city: Cologne
Country: Duitsland
Website: https://www.holland.com/de/tourist.htm

Student

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Organization
Organization’s activities: NBTC works for and with partners in different industries on the country’s positioning, development and marketing. NBTC is working on a national vision on tourism (Perspective 2030) and is putting it into practice. NBTC connects, collaborates with and supports cities, regions and other parties.
Target group of the organization: German people from NRW
Company culture: The company culture is quite informal. However, everyone has someone above him to report to. Furthermore, the communication with the colleagues is very open and casual. Colleagues are addressed with their first names and with the informal “Du“ instead of “Sie“.
Number of employees: 70
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Market & Insight and Travel Trade.
Additionally, due to my interest in PR and Influencer Marketing, I was able to help out in this department as well and gain many interesting insights. (It was my personal choice to do so)

Brief description of your daily activities: The activities are different each day. Some of the activities I focused on were:
Helping with organization for a Press and Trade events, translate texts, create factsheets for the press map, executing some smaller researches for NBTC partners and colleagues and many others. It was quite diverse.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment is in the area of the travel industry. By means of desk and field research, I am investigating the supply side in the Netherlands as well as the requirements on the product development side of the German travel industry. The focus, thereby, is on cycling, looking at both bicycle travel and the larger topic of leisure cycling. The goal of the analysis is to examine in detail which requirements both sides have to take into account in order to be able to place joint offers in the German market.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisors, Martin and Diana, have given me a lot of freedom to prioritize the daily tasks on my own, and have always made sure that I do not have too much or not enough to do. Furthermore, they as well as the other colleagues have made sure that I know that I could always communicate openly and honestly with them.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, team player, sociable, flexible, accurate
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, writing and translating skills
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German: Mother tongue
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch (basic to advanced)

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Car

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? As I mostly worked from home (online), I did not need an accommodation.
How did you go to work every day? On the days in the week that I went to the Cologne office, I went by a car.

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? I would recommend a language course if you do not understand and speak any of the above-mentioned languages.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € –
Accommodation (monthly): € –
Local transport (monthly): € –
General costs of living (monthly): € –
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? For the first three months I received compensation of 300€. I was paid hourly in the last two months (German minimum hourly wage of 9,82€).
Furthermore, when traveling to the office in Cologne, NBTC has compensated the commuting costs.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
As I have lived in Germany for a couple of years, I did not have to prepare for the 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: 192906@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Ask questions! It is always a win-win situation. Be open-minded and use the networking opportunities that NBTC provides you with during your placement. Many significant relations from the tourism and marketing field may be established if you are open to them.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Cologne is a great city, especially for young people. The city has a lot of daily places to meet people, parks to enjoy nature, and exciting nightlife. Moreover, many other big interesting cities such as Düsseldorf, are very close.

Media