On Tuesday 27 October 2026, 16 Langkawi tour and activity operators sat down at Kompleks LADA with no booking site and walked out four hours later with one they built themselves.
Not a demo account. Not something we set up for them beforehand. Their own Kong account, their own activity, their own booking link, built from scratch in the room.
It was our first workshop with the Langkawi Development Authority's Tourism Division, and near the end one operator said something that stuck with us:
"We really love what you're doing for the community. No one has ever brought a complete system for the smaller operators like this. It's always been custom systems for only the big guys."
That's the whole reason Kong exists. This is a write-up of what we did, what the operators built, and what we'd change next time.
Why Langkawi, and why this format
Langkawi has hundreds of small operators. Island hopping, mangrove tours, jet ski, snorkelling, land tours, cable car transfers. Most of them take bookings on WhatsApp, through hotel desks, or through agents who take a cut. Very few have a page where a guest can see what's on, pick a date, and book.
The usual answer is a booking platform built for operators ten times their size, with a monthly fee and a setup process that assumes someone on staff has done this before. For a two-person operator on the island, that's a no before it starts.
LADA's Tourism Division wanted their operators online and bookable. We wanted to see whether operators who had never set up anything online could build a booking site in an afternoon, without us doing it for them. So we ran it as a hands-on session, not a talk.
The rule for the day was simple: nobody leaves without a live booking link they made themselves.
What the afternoon looked like
Half a day, 1:30 to 5:30 pm, in a training room at Kompleks LADA. 16 operators, most with a laptop, a few on their phones.
- Registration doubled as account setup. Every operator created their own Kong account as they signed in. No pre-built pages, no logins we made for them. The first thing they did on the day was the first thing they'd do as a Kong operator.
- Building the first activity. Each operator picked the tour they sell most and built it from scratch: name, description, photos, duration, price in ringgit, how many guests per session. We walked the room and answered questions rather than demonstrating from the front.
- Setting the schedule. Operators set up their sessions, blocked out the days they don't run, and set a cut-off for how late a guest can book.
- Going live. Each operator opened their own booking page on their phone and made a test booking. That was the moment it clicked for most of the room.
- Google Business Profile. We handed every operator a printed audit of their own Google profile, done before the day, showing what was missing. They then went in and started fixing it: hours, photos, categories, and adding the new booking link so a guest searching on Maps can book without messaging first.
Something that surprised us: a few larger operators showed up as well, including some who already have their bookings set up. They didn't need a booking site. They came to support the industry, not just us, and spent the afternoon helping other operators work through things. It was really nice to see the community come together, and it's clear LADA has done a great job fostering it.
Working with LADA
We've worked with a few organisations on events, and this was the easiest by a distance.
LADA's Tourism Division booked the hall, got the invitations out to operators, and sorted meals for everyone, all before we'd asked. When we needed something changed, it was done the same day. We turned up with a banner and some booklets and everything else was ready.
That matters more than it sounds. A workshop like this lives or dies on whether the right operators are in the room, and LADA got them there. If every tourism body in the country worked like this, we'd be running one of these a month.
Workshop hosted by the Langkawi Development Authority's Tourism Division
What was hard, and what we'd change
It wasn't all smooth, and pretending otherwise wouldn't help the next board that runs one of these.
Photos were the slowest step. Most operators had great photos on their phone and nothing on their laptop. Getting them across ate time. Next time we'll tell operators to build on their phone from the start, or send photos to themselves beforehand.
A few operators had never set up any online account before. Not Kong specifically, anything. They needed more one-on-one time than we'd planned for. With 16 people and two of us, it worked. With 30 it wouldn't have. The ratio matters more than the room size.
We didn't get to payments. Setting up a payment account takes documents most operators don't carry to a workshop, so each operator is finishing that on their own, with us a WhatsApp message away if they get stuck. Every site built on the day takes bookings; the payment step is what turns a booking into money in the bank.
What happens next
The 16 operators now have a booking link they can put on their Google profile, their Instagram bio, and the bottom of every WhatsApp reply. We're checking in with each of them over the next few weeks as the first bookings come through.
If you run a tourism board, a state agency, or an operator association anywhere in Malaysia and want the same thing for your operators, the format is simple and we're happy to run it. Half a day, a room with wifi, and operators who bring their own phone. Kong is free for operators, and so is the workshop.
