Tour Operators & travel Agents are different in Malaysia! And the public have had the wrong perception for long time. In Malaysia, Tour Operators and Travel Agents are different and play different roles. In a factory scenario, a Tour Operator is like the production department and the Travel Agent is like the Sales Department…

A Tour Operator is the organizer and provider of package holidays. It is often referred as the Ground Handler. The Tour Company will make contracts with hotels and resorts, airlines and ground transport companies like private cars, buses, vans, ferries and trains & etc. With all the necessary pricing and information compiled, the Tour Operator will draft detailed tour packages and distribute to Travel Agents in Travel Agent Directory in Malaysia and even overseas.

The roles & responsibilities of a Tour Operator are booking and arranging:

- Transportation: Chaffered Car, Chartered Bus & Van, Air Ticket, Train Ticket, Ferry Ticket, Cruise Ticket, other transit modes and even special vehicles like trishaw.
- Tour Guide: All Tour Guides must be licensed by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia after attending and examined in a professional Tourist Guide Courses.
- Sight Seeing: Entrance for tourist destinations, eco-tour, adventures tour, jungle trekking, snorkeling & scuba diving, island hopping and even handicraft or cultural & living experiences.
- Food & Beverage: Breakfast, Tea Time or Tea Break, Lunch & Dinner, whether by set, buffet or packed food.
- Accommodation: Hotels, Resorts, Service Apartments, Camping Sites, Dormitories, Training Camps, Chalets, Tree Houses or traditional houses & habitats that accommodating travelers.
- Activities: Tele-match, treasure hunt, paint ball, team building, outside office meeting…
- Special Events: Company dinner, karaoke contest.

On the other hand, Travel Agents do not operate tours. Travel agencies gives traveling advices to travelers, promote and sell the tour packages that they have from various Tour Operators, then administer the tour bookings. Travel Agents usually are set up in prime locations with heavy traffic such as beside the main roads, inside crowed shopping malls or at the ground floor of a landmark building.

The roles & responsibilities of a Travel Agent are:

- Selling ells travel related products and services, particularly package tours to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers, such as airlines, hotels, tour operator and tour companies, and cruise lines & etc.
- Most travel agents have a special department devoted to travel arrangements for business travelers, while some agencies specialize in commercial and business travelers.
- Some also serve as general service agents for foreign travel companies in different countries.
- Act as an agent for tour packages:
- Buy tour packages or tour services at discounts & sell with profits.
- Get commissions from suppliers & other tour companies.
- Act as a ticketing agent for transportation (e.g. airlines, ferry, bus, train & etc).
- Other commercial operations are undertaken: insurance, travel guides, car rental, Bureau de change, private tour guide & etc.
- Offer impartial travel advice to the customer.

Next time, if you traveling in small group less than 10 travelers, it is advisable to engage a Travel Agent. Do not try to find the best travel agent in Malaysia. There is no such myth! Just go with the travel agent that suit your traveling needs and budgets or the tour agent that you trusted the most. However, if you are organizing a group tour like company tour, a Tour Operator will be able to provide you a more suitable tailor-made service.

The above information are guidelines and advices that 88Holidays provided to its Corporate Clients in organizing group tour. It is simple but useful information to help organizing a successful company tour with many years experiences.

Bangkok is a metropolitan city and is also the capital city of Thailand. It is one of Southeast Asia’s most thriving commercial centers. More than anywhere else in the country, Bangkok tops the list in expressing the culture’s uncanny ability to blend the old with the new. This lends a thrilling sense of discovery to one’s sightseeing, which is favored by nature with a good climate and adds an element of surprise when exploring what is called the orient’s most fabled city.

Bangkok houses busy airports coupled with excellent hospitality. Bangkok International Airport has a domestic as well as an international terminal. Bangkok hotels range from cozy suites to moderate rooms that cost a few bahts, the country’s currency. Early bird reservations are possible at these hotels. A simple application online will suffice. Bangkok is known for having some of the best restaurants in the world. Almost every major cuisine in the world is available in specialty restaurants located throughout the city. Quality Thai and ethnic food is omnipresent in outlets and is also as diverse as street front restaurants and markets.

Bangkok is an excellent place to shop and is often called “the shopper’s stop.” The city is full of many shopping streets which are very unique on their own. The entire street usually sells only one kind of product ranging from fresh flowers, fabrics and clothes, gemstones, electrical goods, monk supplies, and guns. From the historical public ground to the sensational public park, Ratanakosin Island is one of Bangkok’s highest ratios of parkland per capita. Aerobic dances are the area’s major attraction. The city’s other cultural attractions are the Siam society, national museum, national library and the Thai cultural center. This cultural center is considered as an avenue for musical and visual entertainment.

Travel in Bangkok is made even more interesting by the tuk-tuks and the ferry services. Private cars and vans operate in the city almost round the clock.