ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, announced that it has entered into technical and commercial negotiations with Tralliance Corporation for the proposed registry of the .travel domain name for the travel industry.

The industry-sponsored .travel domain, designed to serve the global travel and tourism community, will launch when negotiations are completed, likely in early 2005. The .travel domain is being established to improve Internet identity, increase adoption of online technology and enhance links between suppliers and their customers, leading to greater consumer confidence and increased e-commerce activity.

“Travel spending accounts for more than 28% of all online transactions and the travel industry accounts for more than 11% of the world’s economy, so the time for a .travel domain has clearly arrived,” said Tralliance Corporation President and Chief Executive Ronald N. Andruff. “This platform will give consumers greater confidence and provide a simpler and more reliable way of doing business for travel suppliers and sellers.”
Andruff added that further information about .travel domain and the authentication process will be available online when negotiations with ICANN are completed.

Tralliance Corporation will work with The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC), a non-profit corporation that is the proposed sponsor for .travel and will assist in developing policy for .travel as well as handle informal domain name dispute resolution. TTPC is a membership-based organization open to all travel and tourism associations. The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), the International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA), World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus (IACVB), the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) are among its initial members.

Tralliance Corporation intends to administer the .travel registry and the .travel directory, a global online source of travel data organized according to a proprietary travel and tourism taxonomy designed to match buyers and sellers of travel, tourism or travel-related products or services. The directory will help travelers and industry players efficiently locate detailed (specific) information online about any travel or tourism offering of .travel registrants.

ICANN, established by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1998, is responsible for centralizing technical coordination functions of the Internet. ICANN is a non-profit organization that manages and coordinates the domain name system to ensure that it continues to function effectively.