Enrico is a entrepreneur from Marotta, Italy who runs a travel/tour operator agency specialized in the production of wine and food and arts and cultural packages in the Marche region. He found Duška, an entrepreneur from Croatia, with a lot of experience in running a tourism and travel agency. Duška knew for Erasmus student exchange and when she heard of possibility to host young entrepreneurs interested in work in tourism area she was convinced that with right person both parts can take benefits out of it. Duška wanted to share experiences and was very interested in making new business relationship in order to establish the long term cooperation with people from various countries. On the other hand, Enrico wanted to develop skills in the field of travel agencies and tour operators and to forge contacts abroad, and Duška’s company was a great place to start.
In Croatia, Enrico started by learning the basics of work in a travel agency: communication with the guests, procedure from arival to departure including payment. Since Croatia has not yet introduced Euro, Enrico got familiar with Exchange program as well. He participated in the development of various tourist packages included the presentation of these packages to the various markets through tourist agencies in several countries. He has also been involved in web marketing and SEO. Enrico joined Duška at the Plitvice lakes on the partner’s day, traditional business meeting of tourist service providers where he had the opportunity to get business contacts and learn about the beauty of the park.
Enrico learned a lot from his stay in Croatia. He shared the business project development with an experienced entrepreneur, in order to gain useful advices and suggestions on strategies and methods to be successful. He acquired new methodologies of work, useful in an international context and a better knowledge of the market and of the tourism industry. Enrico got familiar with the way of providing the services to the clients and understood why the individual approach is so important in covering clients expectations and needs. He learned a lot about differences in approaching to clients from various countries, especially those from Scandinavian countries , Chinese and Korean market. He also learned how to communicate with tourist service providers in order to get good offers on one side and with tourist service providers in order to get good offers on one side and how to present the package to final client. Now, Enrico is capable to create tourist packages for one day,weekend or longer stay to individuals or to the groups of special interest. Such an experience will make an positive impact on Enrico’s business and will certainly be very useful in his efforts to develop a successful business in the tourism sector in a way that he can stand out from other tourist companies. On the other hand, Duška hosted a great entrepreneur whose willing to learn and cooperate contributed a lot to her business. She received new ideas and views on how to run a business that can only benefit her agency. Both parties are very happy with the relationship. They plan to extend the relationship with a collaboration for a further month in Croatia (outside the program), and after that they plan a close trans-national cooperation.
„The program is very interesting for new entrepreneur because they can learn faster and deeper insights about their business. The program is a an accelerator for skills. Another benefit is that the new entrepreneur can learn more about different market. Another important consideration is that, working in another country help you understand better your business and give you some insight for improve your business. I recommend the program to all the new entrepreneurs how wants to learn more about their business.“, Enrico said.
„Enrico studied psychology of tourism, has some practice of working in hotel and is developing WOW experiences back home. He was a perfect candidat to work with and explore numerous cooperation possibilities. We are looking forward to a great cooperation.“, Duška said.
