How do you feel working in a place where people come to rest?
19 December 2022
Alexandra Dudina, a first-year graduate student at the Institute of Economics, Management and Information Technology, shared her impressions about her internship in Turkey.
During a family trip to Turkey, I have decided to live in this paradise for some time! Being just a simple girl from the Ural region, I experienced the maritime climate and all the delights of the sea for the first time in her life. And from that moment on I decided to make my dream come true... And in one moment fate decided everything for me. At one of the university events we were told about a possibility of a summer internship in Turkey. And from that day my life completely changed.
It is impossible to convey the feelings and emotion which you experience when you land on the Antalya coast. The doors to the new, unexplored world are opened for you.
Congratulations, you are a transferman!
The first week is adaptation week. After that the real life begins! Six months adventure... You will experience everything: from fatigue and difficulties to the best emotions of your life!
I am your guide. Quite unremarkable-looking person in a yellow shirt and blue skirt, but always with a big smile, even if a smile is the last thing you really want. We deeply enjoy our work that at first may seem boring and monotonous: airport - hotel - tour - shopping - pick up - drop off – repeat. Again, and again. But every day is different and unique! We are the transfermen. We are the backbone of the travel industry!
Our job is both interesting and difficult because, first of all, you work with people, who have their own opinions, views and perceptions. If you want to change your live, broaden your horizons, invest in your personal and career growth - this is the job for you! The transfer guide is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We meet and see off our guests, introduce them to the history of the country, tell them interesting facts, show them local attractions, but most importantly - we are responsible for the smile and good mood of our guests!
Tourism is addictive. We get used to this incredible rhythm and atmosphere imbued with daily emotions and adrenaline, to the constant problems with capricious guests, to the demands of the regional director, to the non-stop schedule, to our colleagues and even to the lojman (dormitory)!
Of course, we all sacrifice ourselves. Perhaps someone would become a politician, a scholar, an educator, a singer... But we conduct tours, meet guests, take groups, go shopping in Antalya's central stores. No, being a tour guide is not as bad as many of you might think right now. But there is no word for "time" in tourism. Month after month, season after season... You get used to it. You don't want to change anything. Coffee with colleagues in the morning, chatter on the way to the hotel, laundry in the evening. The next day is the same: the life of a guide is madly monotonous, but so precious and loved!
On October 26 at 12:45. the plane of Ural Airlines landed at Pulkovo Airport. The plane that brought me back to my usual life, to my friends, parents, street musicians, eternal winds and rains of the city. Many guides will understand me now. How do I get back to my usual life when the last six months have been almost entirely made up of transfer text? How do I fall asleep now without talking to my roommate and discussing everyone and everything? No 202 room, where you can discuss the past day, no more fun and noisy corporate parties, no more guest problems. Sezon bitti ... We want to keep that atmosphere that makes each of us come back again and again, despite how much we sometimes want to pack a suitcase and fly home.
Tourism is for love, tourism is once and for all!
Thank you, UMTE, for such a cool internship opportunity on the Antalya coast! New season, I'm waiting for you!
This program of foreign internships has been implemented by St. Petersburg University of Management Technologies and Economics in cooperation with the Turkish company KILIT GLOBAL since 2014. Starting from 2017, university students have the opportunity to spend a six-month internship on the Antalya coast in Turkey at the company's base.