Interview with Anthony Wong, Group Managing Director, Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel, AOS Conventions & Events, Frangipani Hotels & Resorts, Frangipani Natural Farms, Eco Green Design & Construction and Construction Wetland.

Anthony Wong is one of Malaysia’s pioneer inbound tour operators, working adventure tours from the 1970’s. We asked him how he got into the business.

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When I left high school, I didn’t have money to go to university, so at the age of 19, I started a travel company, Asia Overland. I had an Australian partner, American partner and a Malaysian partner, and for five years we did South-East Asia overland: Bangkok to Bali overland, Burma, Sulawesi and Sumatra.

Tourism was little known at that time, when I started. There was no Ministry of Tourism. The Ministry of Tourism was started in ’86. It was a very tough journey, so five years into the adventure, the partners left, and I began concentrating on Malaysia, Singapore and Borneo, rather than selling the rest of South East Asia. You can’t do everything.

So, I started as a tour operator, and we were the pioneers in nature and eco-tourism, although in those days it wasn’t known as eco-tourism. I started home-stay, and national park and nature tours, including 4-wheel drive, white water rafting, rock climbing, hot air balloons, bicycle tours, and so on. This year we have launched “the road to Saigon”, a journey of luxury vintage cars, owned by a British company.

Three years ago, we had the Royal family of Selangor joining in a similar trip. From nature incentive tours, we got into congresses. We do most of the big congresses in the country. In the 80’s I got into the hotel business, investing in a hotel in Langkawi in 1991, as well as a lodge outside of Kuala Lumpur, then selling the Langkawi property three years later. We came back to Langkawi in 2005, buying back our old hotel, upgraded, and I told my staff, “I’m going to make it the greenest hotel in the world”.

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