Air New Zealand has recently announced that it has acquired a shareholding in Australian online tourism specialists V3 (Vcubed Pty Ltd).
The acquisition is part of the airline’s strategy to further diversify into the wider tourism sector.
V3 provides its open booking exchange (OBX™) technology for tourism suppliers and distributors in Australia. The Air New Zealand and V3 joint venture is to establish a similar tourism exchange in New Zealand. Read our previous post HERE
It would appear that the Air NZ / V3 partnership has made some unfounded assumptions.
Tania Witheford - General Manager for wotif.com in New Zealand has sent a clarification about their reported interest in V3:
"In a recent article published in the "Dominion Post" and other Fairfax publications, a representative from an organisation known as V3 suggested that Wotif.com had an interest in joining with them to access accommodation deals.
We have had a few queries from our accommodation and industry partners about this statement. For clarification purposes, we would like to let you know that the Wotif Group has no relationship with V3 and has no intention of working with this organisation.
The statement attributed to V3 was made without our knowledge and without any authorisation by the Wotif Group".
...Ms Witherford makes it clear that wotif will not be joining forces with V3 anytime soon!
