FINAL PROJECT

DEGREE IN TOURISM STUDIES

“DESIGN OF A WEBSITE OF AN
AGENCY DEDICATED TO ORGANIZE
ENGLISH COURSES ABROAD”

Alumno: Iván Rodríguez Ferrero

DNI: 50547827-Z
E-mail: ivanrf2004@gmail.com
Teléfono: 680211685
C. Asociado: Andrés Manjón (Madrid)
 The project I am presenting today is the result of the work of the last four years of
my life. The “Final Degree Project” is the last subject of the degree in Tourism Studies,
which I decided to study some years ago due to my interest in the industry of the tourism
and my aim to develop my professional career in this area. Spain is still one of the
preferred countries of destination for millions of people during their holiday, due to many
factors: the beauty of the country, the splendid beaches, the fantastic temperatures during
the summer season, the ancient and marvelous architecture…

Because of this, I think there is still way to act in this field, a field which I think
can be very interesting to develop.

For this Final Project, the professors prepare a list with a wide range of different
options, according to the different departments involved in the degree, being the student
the one who decides which options suit him better in accordance to his personal
knowledge or professional expectations.

In my case, I wanted to prepare something related to the English language, as it is

a language that I love and have been studying since I was a small child. The “English
Philology” department offered three different projects, which I found pretty attractive,
and with a lot of possibilities: “Design of a webpage of an agency organizing English
courses abroad”, “Design of an English Virtual course for tourism” and “A bilingual
dictionary of touristic terms English – Spanish”.

After analyzing all of them, I finally decided to go for the design of the webpage.
One of my main motivations for this choice was also that I had some experience in
designing a website. In a subject of second year of the degree, we had the task of designing
a webpage about a high-risk sport agency. I found it quite interesting and funny, so I
thought this could be a great topic to develop.

It has not been an easy project though. On one hand, I had to think about the image
I wanted my website to have. Distribution of texts, pictures, colors, usability… these are
very delicate issues to have in mind, as they have the mission of attracting the customer’s
interest. On the other hand, the texts in English need to be precise, concrete and direct,
with the correct grammar structures and appropriate vocabulary.

The first thing I had to do was to choose the program I was going to use for the
design of the webpage. Due to the reasons I have previously mentioned, I chose “NVU”,
an easy program to use, which I knew beforehand. I had also printed an user guide of the
program, a 30-page document elaborated by the Computer Science Department in the
UNED, year 2008-2009, where they give instructions and tips in an easy way about how
to use the program. This was really helpful when some technical doubts arose.

Before starting to design the webpage itself, I thought about the name I wanted
my agency to have. I finally decided to name it “International English School”, because
with only three easy words, it clearly reflects what this entire site is about: the teaching
of English abroad.

I had some ideas about how I wanted my website to look like. I took a piece of
paper and started to draw different outlines, to finally select the one I thought was more
clear and practical. With the outline selected, and the different categories chosen, I sent
the lay-out to be checked by the professor

After having received good feedback, I started to develop and complete all the
categories, choose the photographs I wanted to include, and the most important, start
writing the texts for the different sections, taking care of all the different grammatical
structures that will appear.

This type of websites may include a huge variety of information, like travel advice,
program information, prices…After checking some of the most important agencies in the
Internet, I made a mix, selecting those categories which I thought were more relevant for
my project.

Let’s analyze now those different categories.

First of all, the website of any company, require some corporative information. A
presentation of the company, saying who we are, history, aim…are important points that
the people like to know before looking for the information itself, and I have tried to reflect
here. In this specific part, it is important to use the correct tense of the verbs…..

The next category I thought would be a good topic is one introducing all the
destinations this agency offers.

I think it has been a good idea to give some details of the city itself, but also some
information about the offers of International English School in that specific place. Being
part of this subject of a degree called “Tourism Studies”, this section gave me the chance
to mix the knowledge acquired in different subjects of the degree (Geography, Art history,
Cultural heritage, English language….) to present a brief description of the most
interesting points in the city of destination, like the most important monuments or most
popular venues.

This was also the right place to show what the International English School in
each different city offers: facilities, location, directions…

But…what criteria have I followed to decide which cities include? It has simply
been a mere practical criterion. Checking in many websites and looking back in the old
books, I had selected those destinations that I had more information to write about, and
since I personally know some of them, I could give a point of view much closer to reality.

After presenting all the available destinations, it is the moment to show all the
academic programs the agency offers. This is the most important section, and need to be
written in a correct way, highlighting the best points of the offer, as this will be what the
customer will look in detail, and making it as attractive as possible.

I would say this is the most academic and formal part of the project, as it contains
all the methodology of each program, and has to show the advantages each specific
program offers, so that the customer feels attractive to them.

It is important also to take into consideration the most personal situations as

possible, in order to be able to provide a specific offer to those different types of
customers. For example, if a person is willing to learn the language in the fastest possible
way, the intensive program is the best option, as it combines long days of classes with
meetings with native professors. But if that person prefers a slower learning, with a much
more presence in the daily life, to get involved in the autochthonous culture, the
Individual program, staying with a host family, will be a good choice.

I have also established other type of programs for the business people, with classes
more focused in the professional development of the student, paying extra attention to the
verbal communication, or also programs for our youngest students, like the summer
camps, where they will learn at the same time they enjoy. I have also thought of those
people who want to spend some time developing non-professional jobs, with the job travel
program, being the agency the one taking care of all the paperwork.

The next section I show in my website provides information about the type of
accommodation the agency offers to the potential students. I personally think this is
another strong point at the time of choosing a language program. Depending on one’s
expectations, staying with a host family or living in a residence sharing with other
students are the main options when going abroad. It is extremely important to clarify the
method of selection of the families, as this might be the most worrying point. People
needs to know that the host families have undergone an exhaustive selection, through
interviews or even background checks. Explaining the criteria followed might be
interesting as well for the customers.

In the residence option, what people is looking for is the fact of sharing with other
international students, in order to improve the oral skills in a much more natural way, and
that the schools have all the necessary facilities and last technology to provide a quality
learning.

Moving forward, the next step is to provide the futures students with all the
information regarding the prices of all the different programs. What I have done is to
explain how the price system I have created works, and what those prices are, so that the
students can find in an easy way what would the total amount they will pay in the end be.
We are tired of seeing those websites and agencies that advertise cheap programs, but at
the end they start charging different extras, making it confusing to the customers.

Under my point of view, I think the easiest for the customer to see, the better. One
program, one price. That is the idea I have tried to follow. It is also very important to state
clearly what is included in that price.

From this point on, I have included some different sections with interesting
information for the future customers, such as Frequently asked Questions (FAQ), travel
advice, special offers and, of course, a contact form.

In the FAQ section, I have included some useful questions, the most common
questions people normally ask about, to try to clarify more the ideas of those who are
interested in one of the programs but still need a last push, in order to help them decide
the most suitable program.
Some travel advice is also a good section to include, not necessary for the
academic expectations, but very well appreciated by the future students. When people
decide for the first time to go for a language program abroad, they are normally afraid of
feeling lonely when arriving to the foreign country and not know what to do. This is a
good opportunity to show the future students that the agency will always be in touch and
take care of them in every situation. Information about what to take or what to do in
certain situations is always very well appreciated, and might be the last determining point
for the customer to decide this agency and not other.

And last, but not least, it is essential to include a contact form, with all the contact
details of the agency (name, address, telephone number, e-mail…), with a space where
the interested customers can write their doubts or simply request the registration to any
of the programs.

After analyzing the form and contents of the website itself, I would like to make
a little analysis of the grammatical structures appeared in the project.

The spirit of this website is to present information about an agency dedicated to

organize language travels abroad. This is why most of the texts are written in present
simple, the right tense used to introduce general information explaining, for instance,
what the different programs offer.

But this kind of websites offer also different possibilities to show information. We
can appreciate how I have used the future simple tense of the verbs in some sections, like
in the “Accommodation” one, presenting what will happen in the near future, if you
choose to go for one or another way of living abroad.

Seen in other sections, mainly in those providing some kind of advice, we observe
how it is important to provide clear directions or specifications, and this is reached by the
use of short sentences, with the exact information the student needs to know. Providing a
lot of information can make the student to feel overwhelmed, having in the end more
doubts or feeling more confused.

Even though this is not very often, I have also included some imperative
sentences, distributed consciously through all the pages. Imperative sentences have the
power to remain in the unconscious of the person longer. They need to be used always
with positive issues, in order to be those issues the ones that the customer remember
longer (“Do not leave everything for the last minute…”, “Bring your illusions to learn…”,
“Do not miss this chance…”). One clear example of this is shown in the proper
description of the name of the agency “You make your own way”. By this, it will remain
that is the proper student who decides what he wants to study, where and how long.

But we do not have to forget that this is an official website from a company which
its final aim is to sell a product. This is why the language needs to be correct and
appropriate, but totally understandable by the general public. One example of this is the
use of the long form of the auxiliaries, instead of using the contracted forms (“Do not
miss…”, “We will go…”).

To sum up, I would like to state that the knowledge acquired during this last four
years of degree has been the base to design this project.
 All the subjects studied provide the students with information about very different
areas, in order for them to decide which field of the tourism fits more with their
expectations.

Following this statement, I think all the subjects much closer to my personal
expectations have their reflection in this website. Being the English Language, in all its
levels, the main subject guiding all the project, there is a combination of topics learnt in
other subjects: Art History, Geography, Cultural Heritage, Computer Science…, in order
to create a good website, not only with the purpose of selling language programs, but also
with the idea of creating a good image of the different destinations that attracts the interest
of the people.

It has been also a good opportunity to look deep in my mind, to rescue some of
the knowledge acquired, but for some reasons has been forgotten. The English Language
is hardly forgotten when you practice it often, as it is my case, but some weird grammar
structures, and technical vocabulary is something that we normally do not pay attention
and normally forget, using in the end the most common and easiest ones. Having a look
back at all of them, and bringing them up again, has been very satisfying and enriching.
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