Speaking at the WTM, Dr. Dawid de Villiers, deputy secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, along with Ron Andruff, president and CEO of Tralliance Corporation, The .travel Registry, urged tourism leaders to protect their nation’s names and places on the new .travel Internet domain before the critical December 31, 2005 deadline.

The World Tourism Organization and UN members have played a direct role to ensure that nations will always have the sole right to their country names. “But this is not the case for place names, such as cities, towns, heritage sites, national parks and preserves,” said Andruff. “On December 31, 2005 place names that have not been reserved will be returned to the general pool and can be claimed by other travel entities sharing those names.”

The World Tourism Organization, along with a consortium of travel industry bodies representing a broad cross-section of the industry, has been communicating with members and disseminating news about the priority rights since phase one of the project began in July of 2005.

De Villiers underscored that nations should act immediately to preserve their place names. “The new .travel Internet domain will change the way business is conducted across the entire travel and tourism industry,” he said. “We have worked diligently to communicate the critical nature of the place names deadline to our members, but the time to act is now.”

“The .travel domain will help fuel consumer confidence and exponentially increase on-line travel purchasing. Nations now have a standard process for protecting their place names and each nation has a responsibility to help our industry put an end to cyber-squatting and identity infringement,” de Villiers said.