Consumer and industry hopes for a clear navigational path through the Internet maze have today been dealt a major blow by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) who, with its most recent delay, continue to deny the travel industry its own, long overdue, space on the Internet.

For the past three years, the travel industry has been working with ICANN to attain “.travel,” a Top Level Domain. Unlike “.com,” “.org,” or “.net”, “.travel” will be restricted to legitimate and reputable providers of travel-related products, services or information only and represent a clear and reliable space on the Internet where everyone will know exactly what content they can expect to find there. As the Internet continues to expand, the importance of the global online travel directory – which is intended to be built around “.travel” to efficiently match buyers to sellers – becomes ever more crucial.

Jean-Claude Baumgarten, Chairman of The Travel Partnership Corporation and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council demands action in an open letter to the ICANN Chairman, calling ICANN’s delays an insufferable impediment to travel and tourism e-commerce.