Internship Report

3/2017
At EAST WEST AIR

Muhammad Fazle Rabbi 8/16/18 PR 4212

I was given a special opportunity by East West Air, a Travel Agency Company, to work

as an intern in the marketing department under direct supervision of the Managing

Partner. I was working with 2 young marketing executives as well as an intern in this

department. I was hired during busiest time of the year of this travel agency, which is

the Hajj season. More than 300 travelers travel during this time. Not only I had to

propose marketing policies but also assigned to some public relations work.

I was able to apply the digital marketing and public relations as well as organizational

communication theories which I have learned during my coursework in university. I

was part of planning and research to create marketing strategies for the company. We

find out tactics for each strategies during the planning process. Moreover, I was

assigned to apply some of those strategies.

For the online marketing strategies I designed websites and Facebook page. And for the

direct marketing, I went to visit target groups and hook them to our services. I was part

of the event planning and management of two events which was a training session for

travelers. I visited other stakeholders for contract and maintain good relations at the

same time, during office hours. Moreover, I have been assigned to write all kinds of

letter, applications for the company. Besides this I designed and ordered the gift

materials for our customers.

After finishing my internship period, I found out that this company has huge potential

to grow, if they can increase their fund in the marketing field. With support of my

coworkers, this internship gave me a big experience on running a travel agency

company.

pg. 1
Table of contents

1. Organizational Background

a) Current Services

b) About Hajj & Umrah Business

2. Work Reflection

a) Digital Marketing Plan

b) Direct Marketing Plan

c) Event Management Plan

3. Examples of Assignments and Activities

4. Conclusion & Recommendation

5. Personal Resume

pg. 2
Organizational Background

EAST WEST AIR (EWA) is a government approved Travel Agency in Bangladesh.

Founded in 2005, the company established its head office in the heart of the capital city

Dhaka. Later they created a branch in Rajbari district in Bangladesh and a foreign office

in Medina, Saudi Arabia. It’s a small organization of around 30 employees working

both home and abroad. Each year this company gets around 400-500 customers

travelling with their travel packages.

East West Air has a vision to become one of the most trusted travel agents of

Bangladesh. Thus they provide ethical training to every employees of the company.

Their mission is to ensure excellent and satisfying travel services to its customers.

The company provides several services since its birth. They provided Travel &Tour

packages to different destinations, Ticketing, Recruiting, Visa processing and Hajj &

Umrah (Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia). However East West Air mainly focuses their

business in Hajj & Umrah services with its Hajj License no. - 383. Muslims from all

over the world travel to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. ‘Hajj’ is an annual group travel

package and ‘Umrah’ is the yearlong travel package. Often they have tourism packages

to some parts of Middle East and South East Asia.

The company have specific number of employees set in every branches, two in

Bangladesh and one in Saudi Arabia. Other than that the company hires ‘group leaders’

from different districts of Bangladesh every year to collect potential travelers. And the

company has been providing special offers to these free-lance group leaders.

Managing Partner of East West Air, Mr. A.R.M. Abdul Matin is the co-founder and

currently in charge of the company. He has been a natonal politician in the past as well

as the founder of a non-profit organization called Save the Youth Society, before

pg. 3
establishing East West Air. Currently he is running the company in partnership the

company’s Director of Finance – Umme Fatima Sufia Khanam. Ms. Umme Fatima

Sufia Khanam is a retired Government official.

The company’s Marketing department has always been very small and less invested

intentionally by the managing partner due to political pressure. But they have always

been using different techniques to promote company services with just goodwill and not

much branding.

Membership:

1. ATAB - Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh

2. HAAB – Hajj Agencies Associations of Bangladesh

Current Services:

1. HAJJ & UMRAH PACKAGES

2. TRAVEL & TOUR PACKAGES

3. LUXAIOUS HOTEL IN KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA (KSA)

4. AIRPORT PICKUP & DROP SERVICE IN KSA

5. VISA PROCESSING & CONSULTENCY SERVICES

6. WORLD WIDE & DOMESTIC AIR TICKETING SERVICE

7. GENERAL TRANSPORT SERVICE (ON REQUIRMENT)

8. SAFE & SECURE HOTEL PREMISES

9. TRADITIONAL BENGALI FOOD SERVICE IN KSA

10. 24HRS RECEPTION & CUSTOMER SERVICE IN KSA

11. INTERNET FACILITIES AVAILABLE IN HOTEL AREA

pg. 4
 Managing Director of
Partner Finance

District Foreign
Dhaka Branch
Branch Branch

IT, Finance,
Marketting 5 Executives 5 Executives
Management

6 Executives 1 Executives 2 Interns

Chart: Organizational Structure of East West Air

pg. 5
About Hajj & Umrah and its process that Agents go through:

What is Hajj?

The Hajj, sometimes spelt Haj, is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are

expected to make at least once in their lifetime. The word Hajj is an Arabic word,

meaning ‘to intend a journey’.

Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam – the others are shahadah (declaration of faith); salat

(daily prayer); zakat (giving of alms); sawm (fasting in Ramadan).

Who should go on the Hajj?

It is mandatory for Muslim adults to go on Hajj at least once in their lifetime. They

must be of sound mind and physically and financially capable of undertaking the

journey. Those who complete the pilgrimage can add the title Hajji to their names.

pg. 6
When is Hajj?

The pilgrimage must take place during the month of Dhu al Hijja, the last month of the

Islamic calendar. The rites of Hajj are performed from the 8th to the 12th of Dhu al

Hijjah.

As the Islamic calendar is based on the lunar year, the date changes in the Gregorian

calendar each year, and is 10 to 11 days earlier than the preceding year. In 2017, it is

expected to be on or around August 20th.

How many people go on Hajj?

Every year about 2 to 3 million people from across the world gather in Mecca for the

Hajj. It is the largest single gathering of people on the planet.

How did Hajj start?

The rites performed at Hajj today were established by the Prophet Muhammad

(sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) but, based on the Qur’an, they can be traced back to the

Prophet Ibrahim, (alaihis salaam), also referred to in English as Abraham.

Muslims believe that Ibrahim (alaihis salaam) was ordered by Allah to leave his wife

Hajar and his son Ismail alone in the desert of ancient Mecca. In search of water, Hajar

desperately ran seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwah but found none.

Returning in despair to Ismail, she saw the baby scratching the ground with his leg and

a water fountain sprang forth at the site.

This is the Well of Zamzam in the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. Pilgrims visit the well

while performing Hajj or the Umrah pilgrimage to drink its water.

pg. 7
What are the rites of Hajj?

The main rituals of the Hajj pilgrimage are:

Ihram: When they arrive in Mecca, pilgrims enter the state of ihram (purity) for the

Hajj pilgrimage. Men must wear the ihram garments consisting of two white, seamless

sheets wrapped around the body, and sandals. As well as purity, this clothing

symbolizes equality and unity as there are no visible reminders of class, wealth, status

or culture. Requirements for women are less strict and they usually dress in white with

only faces and hands uncovered.

While in the state of ihram, pilgrims must – among other things - not cut their nails or

hair, not engage in sexual activity, argue or fight.

Tawaf: Each person walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Ka'aba (the cube-

shaped building and the direction of prayer for Muslims everywhere) in Masjid Al-

Haram. The Ka’aba was built by Ibrahim (alaihis salaam) and is the most sacred site in

Islam.

Al-Safa and Al-Marwah: Pilgrims run seven times between the mountains of Al-Safa

and Al-Marwah as Hajar did during her search for water.

Mount Arafat: Pilgrims go to the plains of Mount Arafat, where the Prophet

Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) gave his last sermon, to stand in vigil.

Stoning the Devil: After Arafat, they move to Muzdalfah and then to Mina to perform a

symbolic stoning ritual in which they fling pebbles at three walls known as jamarat.

This symbolizes how the devil tried to mislead Ibrahim (alaihis salaam) from following

Allah but was fought off when the prophet threw stones at him on three occasions.

Eid ul Adha: The tenth day of the month of Dhu al-Hijja marks the start of the three-

day festival of Eid ul Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice). The pilgrims perform the ritual of

pg. 8
animal sacrifice (Qurbani) and continue with other rites to complete their Hajj.

Qurbani: Qurbani, or Udiyah as it known in Arabic, commemorates the sacrifice

Ibrahim (alaihis salaam) was willing to perform of his son Ismail (alaihis salaam) for

Allah, who spared his son by sending down a ram to take his place.

What is the difference between Hajj and Umrah?

Pilgrims can go to Mecca to perform the rituals at any other time of the year. This

pilgrimage is known as Umrah and, unlike Hajj which takes place on fixed Islamic

dates, is not obligatory.

Source:- https://www.islamichelp.org.uk/what-we-do/seasonal/qurbani/what-is-hajj/

pg. 9
Work Reflection:

The main objective to hire me as an intern is to initiate a number of effective marketing

strategies, event planning and execution as well as to utilize my public relations skills

during their peak business season through client handling and customer relations.

Therefore I have to deal with various different works during my 3 month internship

period.

1st month – May

This is the period when I was given the opportunity to know about the company

through research work and build a positive rapport with the other employees in the

company. And through the research, I had to come up with clear and effective

marketing strategies to boost the company business in the long run. Beside this I was in

charge of the Public Relations assistant of my employer during the office hours.

First I had to start off by team building by creating rapport with my office co-workers,

so that I can get all the support from them. My first assignment was to create suitable

marketing strategies for the company. And I had kick off with the secondary research,

observational (field research) as well as qualitative (interviews) with both internal and

external stakeholders, such as other travel agencies, government office involved in

tourism sector including passport office and embassies.

For secondary research data collection, I go through the marketing research of other

competitors online, government ethical guidelines for all travel agencies, and the

internal business ethics of this company as well.

SWOT - The research analysis based on the number of customers each travel agency

gets annually, East West Air remains in the middle among 1100 travel agents. However

qualitative interview research with the past and existing customers rated very high and

pg. 10
gave positive reviews of the services they got from the company. The main threat of

EWA is the local political pressure on the rising business companies with taxes and

embargoes. Moreover the lack of experienced IT trained employees lead to delayed

office services. This company has a big opportunity to grow as they are concentrating

on Hajj & Umrah (Pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia). Each year millions of people

travel to Saudi Arabia and stay for around a month as for their religious responsibility.

As Bangladesh is a Muslim country, each year 120,000 Pilgrims are set to go for Mecca

during the Hajj season only and the number of visitors increase beyond that during

other times of the year as to perform Umrah.

Based on this market analysis, and an IT consultation session with my supervisor, I

came up with 2 marketing strategies to attract and hold potential customers. These

strategies are built to establish the presence and reaching more customers while keeping

the brand recognition to a minimum level.

1. Online Digital Marketing

2. Direct Marketing

My coworkers agreed with my choice of Online Marketing because its quickest source

to reach maximum population in this digital era, as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh is

on a successful mission to its ‘Vision 2020 – Digital Bangladesh’. Moreover East West

Air as an immerging travel agency in Bangladesh lacks a basic online platform. Thus

content marketing is inevitable for the company we thought. I initiated a Facebook page

for blogging and a new website design for advertisements.

Digital Marketing Plan:

Creating a Strategic Roadmap: We start off by opening a Facebook page and Designing

a website according to the mode and tone of the company. Then we analyzed that

pg. 11
following contents needed to update on the regular basis: 1) current news and events, 2)

upcoming events and schedule, 3) travel stories from the previous customers and 4)

personal travel blogs from the company employers.

Tactics: I used the wordpress to design the website, and computer graphics to

create contents.

Reach – We make sure to add customer experience and photos to get more shares and

likes. As well as hiring a media content creator for building attractive digital contents

about the services for online media.

Tactics: Creating digital contents for any major events by using freelancers, and

furthermore give short training courses on computer graphics to the company

employees.

Interact – Responding to emails and direct phone line regularly with interested

customers.

Convert – Re-targeting potential customers through personalized emails and through

paid advertisements and gifts.

Tactics: Hire part time student employees to create profiles for target customers.

Customer profiles will help us to create personalized messages and creating

personalized gift items.

Engage – Discounts on online booking for preregistration of Hajj. Enumeration for the

previous customers, who introduces new customers.

Tactics: Create Facebook timeline GIF advertisements with Photoshop. GIF will

contain attractive discount announcements for connecting potential customers to our

company representatives.

pg. 12
Brand – Increase awareness about the company’s specialized personal services for each

customers through this company. Thus get emotional connection with the company.

Governance – Keeping contracts through emails and newsletters, as well as inviting to

our annual events for the previous customers will keep a permanent connection with

them.

Secondly we plan to initiate a stronger Direct Marketing techniques, which was already

existed within limited human resources of EWA. As we already found out that most of

the customers are coming through word of mouth because of the goodwill. We plan to

contact with more ‘group leaders’ from different parts of the country to contract with

our company. Group leaders are the freelance contractor who shares profit with travel

agencies by providing them region based customers. Later, I personally visited the

district office as a company representative to contact with local community leaders,

based on the connection with the company manager. Furthermore we also set different

points in Dhaka, mainly different mosques where religious people gather for weekly

Friday prayers, to meet potential customers. We created two events like ‘iftar party’ as

well as distributing leaflets and brochures in those events.

Direct Marketing Plan:

1. Developing the contract list – To keep an updated online database for customer

contact information. Even try to retain contact of old customers to keep an updated

contact information.

2. Call to action! – Design email that that avoid unnecessary information which lead to

ignorance. Making clear about what the company wants, and not to shy about

communicating it, during emails, advertisements as well as in the events & conferences.

pg. 13
“Start off with just pre-registering for annual pilgrimage with us as soon as possible,

then payment can be done through long installments before travel with zero interest

rate”

3. Keeping track of responses but be patient about consumer response before retargeting

and call to action.

4. Door to door flyers/leaflets brochures – Contracting paper man of targeted offices to

put the flyers inside daily paper, during the delivery of morning paper.

5. Personalized interaction before and during actual transaction – Meet them at local

mosques and public gathering. Invite them for lunch at office premises.

Tactics: Local mosques are the first choice when targeting customers for

pilgrimage. Its communal setting where you can get attention from target audience, who

are ready to accept an invitation for a tea party.

So the tactics is to send each office employees, to attend a particular mosque every day

for prayer and put a small budget for tea party. Majority of our target audiences are

recently retired officers. So they will easily accept such invitation. These small

gathering and discussion will increase the branding of the company services. Moreover

the employers can invite one previous customer to the party if possible just to publicize

the goodwill of the company.

Once a customer is in a positive mindset, invite them to the office for further details and

preregistration process.

Targeting customers through database:

1. Old consumers, recent consumers, spend the most to get our services

2. Customers those who are retiring, or getting a promotion.

pg. 14
3. Door to door flyers/leaflets brochures – Contracting local paper man near the targeted

offices to put the flyers inside daily paper, during the delivery of morning paper.

During this period I had to take part in 3 meetings with my supervisor, to discuss and

consult about the development of Public relations techniques among the employees,.

My discussion was mainly focused on improving customer relationship management.

So during the office hours I was given the charge of an important Public relations work

of client handling. I was leading my office co-workers to handle guests, customers, and

other stake holders who visits in our company head office. Assuring good service to

existing customers, to provide information the potential customers, even handling angry

and rude customers with effective communication techniques.

I have learned a lot from the first month of internship on how to deal with people.

Furthermore I have learned not all marketing techniques are applicable for a specific

company. For example, my supervisor has advised me not to do excessive branding of

the company during my marketing plan as to deal with political issues. As well I was

allowed only limited personal branding of the head of the company for personal issues.

The main mistake I did in this period was to rush on the research project, as I got some

limited and some not specific results about other companies before analyzing. If I had

more time, more funding and more human resource, the research would have been

better.

2nd month – June

pg. 15
This period I was assigned to my office desk to be in charge online works, which

includes the application of our online marketing strategies as well as helping out with

other office IT works.

The first thing I created was open a company Facebook page to reach through social

media about upcoming events and news stories. Then I initiated designing a new

website through Word press, then handed it to the IT department for installing the latest

updates before launching the website. The website includes newly designed leaflets of

the current tour packages.

In the meantime, I have been assigned to monitor two official websites during this Hajj-

2018 session. Through the Bangladesh government website, all the registrations and

data entry of the pilgrims are maintained by the IT department. The other is Saudi

government website which is used for booking hotel, catering and visa processing for

each travel agency. This websites need to be monitored until travel document of all the

travelers are received. Here are the websites:

1. https://ehaj.haj.gov.sa/EH/index.xhtml?dswid=8163

2. https://prp.pilgrimdb.org/

The PR work assignments that was assigned to me was booking 5-star hotels for some

of our travelers in Saudi Arab. This time of the year people rarely can book it online. So

I had to contact through E-mails and telephone to get a good deal with a contractor of

Millennium Hotels.

Furthermore I had to write applications for the airline ticket booking for around 300

travelers to Saudi Airlines. I had to meet airlines officials face to face to secure the

exact flight dates during this busy period.

pg. 16
I have learned through this period that one have to contact people through many

different sources without giving up to get the expected outcome. The mistake I made

was break one company ethics during high pressure situation. I realized that to remain

calm and to follow the company ethics is the key, even though it might goes against the

universal ethics.

3rd month – July

In this last month of my internship, I had to be part of events planning and management

for couple of Hajj Training session, select and design the gifts for the pilgrims, prepare

and distribute all necessary travel documents before the 300 pilgrims finally fly off to

Saudi Arab.

East West Air marketing department brainstorm ideas to host two events as training

session for the pilgrims. One in the head office for the customers living in city and

surrounding areas, and another one in the district office where half of the pilgrims

comes from. I took part in video selection for presentation, sound system, and food for

both events.

Then I was assigned to order gift bags for the travelers, selecting the design which

includes the company logo.

A week before flight scheduled, we prepared all the travel documents and distribute it to

the pilgrims from the head office.

The last week after we see off the travel group, the marketing department was assigned

to keep updating the online platforms.

pg. 17
This period was a lot of field work, and I have gain new experiences customer

relationship, as well as handling people with negative and unfavorable situations.

Event Planning was as follows:

Objective: To train the pilgrims of the rules and regulations of Hajj while they stay in

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for around one and a half month. We want the pilgrims in the

event to have an overview and virtual experience of Hajj. So that they can mentally

prepared for the whole journey. Moreover this training gives one a perfection in their

rituals.

Second Objective is breaking ice among the group leaders and pilgrims as well as with

the company manager with whom they will spend for more than a month together.

Third objective is to let the pilgrims aware of the exact responsibilities of the company,

and also what each pilgrim personally responsible for during the travel. Sometimes lack

of this information leads to major misunderstanding while staying abroad. This can lead

to mismanagement.

Establishing Timelines: Due to unavailibity, we are on a strict schedule to hold two

events in a week, one in the head office and another in the district. We have to call

every office members about distributing the jobs during these events. It includes venue

preparation, digital and technological setup, budgeting, contracting catering services,

etc. We made sure that everyone keep updated with their responsibilities.

Tactics: Office meetings after office hours about the work distribution

Venue Setup: The event in the head office was chosen to be the office premises itself

for the training venue. But for the district office we have to choose a community hall

room for the event. We made sure the setup sound system is ready before the event day.

pg. 18
Sourcing and Managing Supplies: For the first event our marketing department took

charge of contracting supplies. I made sure everyone was fulfilling their roles within the

budget. But for the second event I had no direct involvement except to attend on the day

so I maintained contact with the district office executives, so that they go according to

the plan until the event day.

Budgeting – I have to contact with the finance division to have a clear budget for this

two events, before planning the event.

Communication: This was the part I had to take charge solely. I contracted each of our

customers who are travelling in this year’s Hajj about this event and how they will be

benefited by attending this event. I send mobile messages to all the pilgrims,

communicating the importance of this event. I also used this chance to promote our

events through social media.

Managing Risks: We always have a plan B for venue selection. We have to keep in

touch with a second venue if anything goes wrong with selected venue. The risk is high

because our manager ensure us about the event date on very last moment. So we have to

keep a second venue in contract even though it would cross our budget limit, if the first

one fails.

Event Training Materials for the trainer:

Selecting video for training- the video must contain every process of performing Hajj

Selecting a guest speaker – We have to select a guest speaker who is experienced,

knowledgeable and presentable to make the event entertaining as well as informative

for the audiences

Formatting the speech for every speakers – We have to give the speakers a guideline of

pg. 19
limits and duration of the speech. Also help them in providing necessary information

about the company which they will include in their speech.

Examples of Assignments & Activities

Managing Partner of East West Air – During my internship, I was generating PR and

marketing strategies for the company with his supervision and consultation.

pg. 20
I was assigned to build marketing strategies as well as taking responsibilities of the

public relations work of the office from my desk. I was meeting clients, customers,

handling all complaints to maintain customer relationships.

pg. 21
The office of East West Air is in the heart of the capital city Dhaka. It has been

established since 2005. The geographic position gives the company a greater advantage

in contracting other stakeholders’ offices.

pg. 22
My Internship Coworker who is working in the head office along with me. We are in

charge of the event planning and management with the other employees in both head

office and district office.

The event that was held in the district office - a training event for the pilgrims this year.

This event provides the guide to the travelers of dos and donts when they land in

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well rules and regulations of how to perform the

pilgrimage.

pg. 23
I initiated the design of the new website with Wordpress. It will be launched soon. The

website will provide all the travel packages, blogs and travel stories.

Facebook page that I have started during this period. This will boost the company’s

publicity and connection with wide range of people.

pg. 24
Gift bags that I designed and ordered for travelers. We ordered 300 bags. The bright

color we chose for the bags so that we can recognize every travelers in the group in the

crowd.

pg. 25
Leaflets that is designed for this year, in reference to previous years. The leaflet in

Bangla Language states Hajj packages for the pilgrims. We also made sure of the

wording that appeals the target customer. The brochure also contains rules and

regulations of performing hajj.

pg. 26
For the website and facebook I created this package brochure for the entire year of

2018-2019 Umrah period.

During my office hours, my job as a customer relations management, I have to receive

our customers and guests to ensure our services through adequate information.

pg. 27
I wrote all the English formal applications, and emails for the company during this Hajj

period (3 months) which is the busiest period of the company. From booking Hotel

rooms in millennium hotel to writing application for booking air the tickets with Saudi

Airlines.

pg. 28
Conclusions and Recommendations

I have been very grateful to work at East West Air, as for my summer internship of

Public Relations. Although I was assigned to the marketing department, this position

gave me a wide range of experiences and knowledge of what a small size company

needs from the marketing as well as public relations field.

Working under the direct supervision of the company manager gave me a wide

exposure on how to run a travel agency. I have learned how to cope up with people

during the ups and downs of the business. Small number of employees in the marketing

department was the main problem I faced during internship session, which created

limitation in work as well generating ideas. However 1 month of training session from

the company on SPSS before the internship period, allowed me to quick analyzing

during my research from the previously collected data.

I have learned how to make deals with the external stakeholders and the practical use of

organizational communications with internal stakeholders, during the execution of my

strategies. I have learned through my mistakes in adapting with the office environment.

The research and planning gave me a practical experience in proposing practical ideas

to a company. The ideas which are vague or unrealistic was rejected on the spot, and I

have to find alternate realistic solutions.

East West Air is a company that strictly maintain the company ethics on their

employees. So even though they are a smaller business establishment in terms of capital

in comparison with its competitors, they are well maintained. The company has a big

capacity in the fields of travels and ticketing. Moreover the demand of going to Hajj &

Umrah in a Muslim majority country is ever increasing. So this travel agency has huge

potential for business, if they can increase funding in marketing field. The increase in

pg. 29
funding will automatically happen through Return of Investment, if they continue the

hard work. That will lead to a perfect application of all our marketing strategies.

Although this is not a Public relations company, I got caught up with the demand of

various PR related works. This type of company is good to work with if one have a plan

for opening up a related business in the future. And it provides a lot of experiences with

official works with stakeholders in the related fields. So I am very grateful to be part of

this company.

Thank You

pg. 30