This posting is about people becoming extraordinary in a sea of “ordinariness”. What is their mindset?
Anthony started his tourism career with a passion for people, travel and nature. This has taken him to be the CEO of Malaysia’s largest travel company and a renowned international authority on “Eco-Tourism”. He has achieved his goals by having passion, a big vision and focus without knowing the words “limits” or “cannot”.
I have known Anthony for about 20 years and seen how he has developed to what he is today. This posting is about Anthony using his business skills and passion for eco-tourism to transform an “ordinary” hotel to be a multi-award winning hotel in “Responsible Tourism” on the world stage. He uses basic conservation techiques, not only to save on the operating costs of the hotel, but make it outstanding with all the hotels in the world.
Anthony Wong evangelising about conservation in the Frangipani Resort.
Anthony Wong was promoting Malaysia as a tourist destination since the 1970s when the reaction of most people was – “Where is Malaysia?”
Since then, some 30 years later, there is now a Malaysian Government Department of Tourism and his company “Asian Overland Services” (AOS) is the largest travel company operating in Malaysia.
Anthony now owns “Frangipani Resort”, a 118 room chalet village in the idyll islands of Langkawi, off West Malaysia. He uses this as an opportunity to carry out his passion – Eco-Tourism. Any hotel will have a considerable impact on the environment – in its construction and its operation.
Thereby, Anthony uses Frangipani as a working model for the various methodologies. He very much believes that conservation should not only be about saving the planet but also, reduce costs.
He has, with considerable energy, tackled 3 aspects of the operation of the resort.
1. Water – all water including rain water is recycled (and processed to a specific World Health Organisation (WHO) standard). This is used for non-food/drinking activities like the garden and washing. The cost of water has decreased to one third (from GBP 3,000 to GBP 1,000 a month). There is no outflow of water from the property. The ROI for this project is 18 months.
2. Electricity cost (cooling and light) was reduced with design aspects in the renovation of the property. Hot water was obtained from solar panels.
3. Waste – where possible, waste is recycled. Kitchen and organic waste is processed to be fertiliser for the garden. Waste removal has been cut dramatically thereby saving further costs.
4. Education – Frangipani has an active programme for informing the children in local schools the awareness of the delicate eco-balance of the islands.
Frangipani Resort
There is much talk about conservation and saving the planet. Much has been said but there are usually a financial penalty to the conservation project. What Anthony is showing that conservation is a method to reduce costs.
To show Frangipani Resort is credible, Virgin Holidays gave the resort “Responsible Tourism Award” at the World Travel Market (2008) in London.
Anthony Wong is again pioneering the way again.
Links
Details of the conservation being carried at the Frangipani Resort
Dr Michael Oon
