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V3 and Tourism WA unveil new partnership
22 January 2009
Online booking initiative set to boost State’s tourism
Visitors to WA will soon be able to book accommodation, tours and attractions through
the State’s travel and tourism website, westernaustralia.com.
Tourism Western Australia Chief Executive Officer, Richard Muirhead said work had
begun to get tourism operators across the State, including those not yet bookable
online, to market and sell their products on the website.
“By using the open booking exchange technology, westernaustralia.com will have the
unique feature of gathering pricing and availability information from existing industry
booking engines,” Mr Muirhead said.
“This will be a boost for tourism in WA as consumers can now look then book direct
with the industry, making it easier to plan their next journey.”
Mr Muirhead said that after a public tender process, Tourism WA had contracted
technology provider V3 to develop the online booking exchange and increase the
number of WA tourism product bookable online.
“Research shows the proportion of WA tourism product currently bookable in real time
is relatively low and this project is about providing support to operators to get them into
the online environment,” Mr Muirhead said.
“The open exchange will reduce the need for consumers to have to phone and check
availability or pass over credit card details via phone or fax, which often proves to be
inconvenient.”
V3 Chief Executive Officer, Shane Crockett said they were delighted to be awarded the
contract and were keen for tourism businesses to adopt this new technology.
“The technologies we will be using will allow tourism businesses such as operators or
wholesalers to use their existing booking engines to let the consumer book their
product,” Mr Crockett said.
“By visiting westernaustalia.com, consumers will be able to search for WA product and
choose from the booking engines that sell that particular product, giving them more
choice in real time.”
Mr Muirhead said the online booking feature on westernaustralia.com would be
completed in the coming months, starting with accommodation and attraction
providers.
“This will strengthen our tourism industry and increase the level of service to our
customers, so they can book their next holiday in WA sooner,” Mr Muirhead said.
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