Internships Tourism & Leisure

Thomas More University of Applied Sciences in Mechelen has a lot of talented tourism students who are eager to put their knowledge into practice during an instructive internship. Our students have been trained to deal with an ever-changing context, to follow trends closely and use their creativity.
Would you like to inspire, share your knowledge and expertise with one of our future professionals?

Internship opportunities

We have 2 types of internships. You can apply for both types of internships.

1. Internship 15 weeks (3-year bachelor)
These students follow the 3-year bachelor program.
They do an internship during the last semester of their program. The internship can take place during 2 periods, namely from March to June or from September to December. The majority of students do their internship from March to June.
Please specify which languages the student must master to be eligible for an internship in your company. Our students choose their own internships and contact you directly, like a regular application.

2. Internship 9 weeks (one-year 'Short track program' - second bachelor degree)
A limited number of students already obtained their first bachelor degree. They study the Tourism and Leisure Bachelor program via a shortened one-year track. These students also have a shorter internship period, which takes place during summer (July-August), autumn (September-November) or exceptionally during spring (March-April).

Content of the internship

Tourism is a broad sector, which we naturally prepare our students for. They choose a specialization towards their final year that they will further explore during their internship:

• Travel Management
  • Leisure Travel & Tour Operating
  • Business Travel 
• Hospitality Management
  • Travel Accommodation

  • MICE & Travel Information Office

• Culture , sport and adventure Management
  • Destination Management

  • Cultural, Sport and adventure venues & events

• Aviation Management
  • Airlines

  • Airport

Where can students support you?
Each internship can be specified according to the options, but here are some ideas what to expect:

• Support new product development initiatives, tour operating and travel agent & airline services.
• Responsible for bookings, responding to inquiries, customer contacts and ticketing.
• Communication & marketing support: update social media, prepare website content. Carry out market or competitor study, analyse trends on the supply and demand side of your business.
• Sales & Marketing: Update customer database, support development of commercial actions or loyalty programmes, support customer engagement initiatives, support with sales activities and daily tasks.
• Support planning process & organisation of events online and onsite from a-z. Prepare quotes, respond to offers event & catering sales.
• Operational/asst. management in Front & Back office departments: guest relations, front office, guest services, reservations.

What do we expect from the internship?

If you wish to offer an internship to one of our tourism students, we kindly ask you to take into account the following conditions:

• The company/organisation formulates a detailed internship description for the intern before the internship starts via our online portal.
• The workload for the intern correspondents to that of a standard 'Belgian' working week (=+/-38h.).
• The intern is assigned a personal mentor at the company/organisation who provides the intern with the necessary support and ensures regular monitoring of the intern's progress, including evaluation via two online assessments and feedback moments.
• The internship takes place in a real professional working environment.
• The intern gets acquainted with the internal workings of the organisation, its structure, working climate, working methods, expectations, work pace, and corporate culture.

Modalities Toerisme en Recreatiemanagement - International Tourism and Leisure Mechelen

More specific information about the guidelines can be found in the table below: