With global travel industry leaders such as British Airways, Expedia, Fairmont, Kruger National Park, TUI, Raffles Hotels and Resorts, Marriott, Carnival Cruise Lines and Disney among the first to register their company`s .travel domain names, Ron Andruff, president of Tralliance Corporation, the .travel Registry responsible for administering the domain, announced that 16,162 .travel domains have been registered during the first 16 weeks alone.

The revelation took place as Tralliance hosted industry leaders and travel trendsetters from around the world at a gathering in New York City on January 29 to celebrate the highly anticipated official launch of the domain.

With this announcement, the .travel top level domain formally establishes itself in the mainstream of the World Wide Web following completion of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) mandated limited launch phase. The limited launch period demonstrated that all systems are go, which enables the fully operational Registry to now accept .travel registrations from the broad spectrum of the global travel and tourism industry.

The .travel Registry is now open and we are inviting all the world`s travel-related businesses to claim their space on the Internet, said Andruff, before the crowd of influential guests and representatives of .travel domain holding organizations, including the Honorable Charles Lapointe, chairman of the board of the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC); Birger Backman, president of The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC); Vincent Wolfington, chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC); Kathryn Sudeikis, national president and CEO of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and Peter de Jong, president and CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

As the logical expansion of the domain name system and technology advancements continue to propel the Internet revolution, the travel industry - the largest industry in the world - is the first to make a unified effort to remove their products and services from the anonymity of the .com Web to institute its own identity through an industry-specific space on the Internet, continued Andruff. .travel is now a permanent part of the foundation of the World Wide Web. As travel and tourism businesses register their .travel domains they are not only reshaping the next generation Internet but making history by playing their role in this defining moment in the evolution of the travel industry.

Tralliance has taken a very methodical approach throughout the introduction of the .travel domain and has enlisted the support of more than 120 travel associations to assist in the process, said Backman. Averaging 1,000 domain names per week at this stage clearly indicates a high level of enthusiasm throughout the industry. And while no one expects this pace to continue, it certainly demonstrates that the .travel space will continue to populate in a robust fashion over the next decade, he said.

Andruff noted that the Registry is pleased with the adoption rate and that the current number of registered domains after only 16 weeks almost tops that of all other Sponsored Top Level Domains combined, including those that have been in existence more than five years.

Canadian Tourism Commission Spearheads Innovative Domain Strategy

Concurrent with the launch of .travel, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) has announced an innovative new marketing communications strategy in support of the Canada Keep Exploring brand campaign. The new initiative will result in the creation of the nationally-focused travel portal, Canada.travel, which will debut for consumers in the second quarter of `06.

According to Michele McKenzie, president and CEO of the CTC, By consolidating our Canadian tourism assets under the Canada.travel domain, the CTC, along with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA), the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) and other tourism-related organizations, provinces, cities, and communities, will provide a unified and easy-to-navigate online world of travel for consumers and businesses alike to explore Canada.

The Canada.travel domain name will be the foundation of the new Canadian travel portal, says Jens Thraenhart, the CTC`s new executive director of marketing strategy and customer relationship management. The initiative will give the CTC the necessary platform to execute a consumer-centric strategy enabling us to facilitate a value exchange between travelers to Canada and industry partners. Canada.travel will increase awareness of Canada as a prime tourism destination, drive tourism revenues, and build strong relationships with our consumers.

An early supporter of the .travel concept, the CTC has also worked to protect the integrity of the domain for consumers by ensuring the protection of all Canadian place names and encouraged Canadian travel destinations to secure their rightful names in the .travel Internet space. The CTC understands the intrinsic value of the industry domain and continues to be a global innovator by setting the pace for .travel`s strategic utilization, said Andruff.

We envision Canada.travel as much more than a domain name, adds McKenzie. We see it as a valuable portal to promote Brand Canada and enhance Canadian e-commerce for decades to come.

Consumers and Industry Benefit from .travel

As the top-level domain dedicated exclusively to the travel and tourism industry, .travel aims to provide consumers a more effective means of locating pertinent travel information from businesses, organizations and individuals online. A key component of that is bringing the entire travel and tourism industry onto the Internet, since today only a fraction of the industry has, in fact, a Web site.

Unlike .com or any other generic domain names, .travel applies transparent, standard criteria to confirm the validity of a business or organization as a precondition to domain name registration. Only verified operations in the travel and tourism industry are eligible to hold a .travel domain name, ensuring the accuracy of information contained in the .travel Registry while eliminating the aggravation of cyber squatters and domain name speculators.

Supporting the smallest to largest players in the travel industry, a .travel domain name and the .travel Directory are not only a means of leveling the playing field, but also of increasing revenues for all registrants across the full spectrum of travel providers and purveyors, through matching buyers to sellers in the most efficient manner available on the Internet today.

The .travel Directory

Currently in Beta testing, later this year, Tralliance will unveil the new consumer .travel Directory as a free service that will prove a useful search tool for consumers and the travel trade seeking information. When initially launched to the consumer, content in the .travel Directory will be presented in nine languages: English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin.

Providing a precise catalog of virtually every product or service offered by .travel registrants, the .travel Directory is an unbiased utility that distributes company, product and service information corresponding to each query, enabling users to expeditiously find exactly what they are looking for.

Unlike other search tools on the Internet, the .travel Directory performs concept or co-related searches - i.e. travelers searching for a hotel in Orlando with a spa, a golf course and certified babysitting services receive only those specific hotels that offer all of those features. The .travel Directory is designed to filter every profile listing in the system through the matrix of user-selected criteria. The more granular the search criteria, the shorter the list of matching providers will be returned. The fact that the user will receive 100% matches to every query will go a long way to removing the frustration of today`s online travel planner while enhancing commerce for the entire industry.