A New Web World Is Dawning

For The Travel/

Tourism Industry

By Peter Coloyan

It’s called Dot-Travel! Just what is Dot-Travel, and what does Dot-Travel mean to you?

The new TLD (top level domain; e.g. .com, .net, .info), Dot-Travel (.travel), was proposed by The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC) and sponsored by New York based Tralliance Corporation, which intends to become the registry for Dot-Travel. It was approved by ICANN, the Internet domain naming authority, last year. The actual launch of Dot-Travel should take place in the second half of 2005, although no firm date has been indicated.

According to its Web site, “Tralliance Corporation is dedicated to enabling travelers and the tourism trade to more effectively locate precise travel information to facilitate commerce.” Formed by travel industry veterans with proven online success, Tralliance does seem to be doing “all the right things” for our industry and the fair and honest implementation of Dot-Travel.

TTPC was formed specifically to get Dot-Travel approved and online. TTPC is well-positioned to monitor and govern the distribution, registration and ownership of the Dot-Travel domain names. Its current “interim” board of directors is comprised of 10 travel industry veterans, all of whom would be included in anyone’s book of “Who’s Who in Travel.”

They come from every sector of worldwide travel and tourism. This board will, eventually, be comprised of 25 of our industry’s most Web-savvy and technology-friendly individuals, who will help to create and promote an online marketplace that should draw more than its fair share of the 28% of total online sales currently being rung up by the travel industry.

Some of the current association members of TTPC include ASTA, CLIA, IATA, International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, NACTA, PATA, Travel Industry Association, USTOA and World Travel and Tourism Council. These members, in fact all members of TTPC, are truly the overseers of Tralliance’s foray into the complex world of launching a new domain registry.

I know, I know, enough of the details, already! Just what is all this hoopla? Why the need for Dot-Travel, and what, exactly, does it mean to you, the home based agent?

Dot-Travel means business, more business for you! Exactly how requires just a little more explanation of the way Dot-Travel is to be implemented and administered, and the way the second-level domain names (that’s the name BEFORE the .travel) will be allocated and registered.

Dot-Travel domain names are to be allocated to those with travel industry “credentials” only! This should effectively mean that not everyone and his sister can get a Dot-Travel domain name. As long as this rule has teeth, and the credentials “sold” by card mills, etc. are not sufficient for Dot-Travel registration, this will mean less competition from outside the travel industry — the travel “pretenders” — which will mean more business for you!

Additionally, there will be “limitations” on generic names — i.e. Travel.travel, and more focus given on specific company domain names — i.e. SmithTravel.travel. This means there will be less clutter of sheer numbers of domains for consumers and search engines to sift through.

To help facilitate an easier search, plans are also in place to include every Dot-Travel domain name in the “first central, global online directory based on unique vocabulary to precisely identify providers of travel products and services to consumers worldwide.”

This should make it easier for potential customers to find your site, and specific service type keyword searches should turn up more pertinent results.

What if you already have your Dot Com and you’re wondering what to do? Keep that Dot Com, and NEVER let it go, but you should grab your name in Dot-Travel as soon as the registry makes it possible to do so!

Do not delay. After an initial general apathy to the new TLD due to the ‘comfort’ and ‘familiarity’ of the Dot Com world, I believe Dot-Travel will become THE place to be on the Web for all our travel services and products. After all, on the Web, nothing says travel like, well, Dot-Travel!

Peter Coloyan has been in the travel industry for over 20 years. He embraced the Internet at its beginning and has flourished with it. He currently writes on, as well as edits, over 100 travel-related Web sites.