New Sites, New Widgets

Rottnest Island Authority Re-launch

The second-last site to be launched on Tourism WA's fully branded, MOSS-based site provisioning platform went live last Thursday; I reckon it’s one of the best looking sites they've launched to date (the Rottnest Island photography helps, of course). Check it out: http://www.rottnestisland.com

[Update 22 July: As mentioned in my profile to the right, I'd like to clarify the fact the new rottnestisland.com web site is provided by Tourism Western Australia under the Tourism eMarketplace program; although I was involved in the technical construction of the web site as a contractor working for Tourism Western Australia, Mediawhole and mediawhole.com were NOT involved in the launch of this web site. Whereas I previously used the terms "we" and "our" in this post, I was referring to Tourism WA and teams working with the Rottnest Island Authority.]

Booking Exchange

On the subject of all things new, the new online booking capability has also launched on westernaustralia.com. The system integrates with our existing search function and provides live availability information from V3’s Open Booking Exchange. The politics around this apparently simple change were massive but the technology side was relatively straightforward by comparison (web service calls from within SQL Server are as complex as this got from our end). If you’re a tourism operator, find out more.

Travel Planner

The online travel planner was also finally launched after nearly a year of work with a Sydney-based agency. Luke was our man on the ground with this one and he did a great job integrating drop after drop of this widget.

The travel planner “helps visitors collect, organise and share their WA travel itineraries.” You can sign up from the westernaustralia.com homepage and add items from across the site to your travel wallet.