Travel Leaders Celebrate .travel Internet Domain Launch

Within the first 16 weeks of its launch, 16,162 .travel domains have been registered. Leading companies such as British Airways, Expedia, Fairmont, Raffles Hotels and Resorts, Marriott, Carnival Cruise Lines and Disney have registered .travel domain names. Tralliance, the .travel registry administering the domain, celebrated the official launch on Jan. 29 in New York City. Industry leaders attending the event included Charles Lapointe, chairman of the board of the Canadian Tourism Commission; Birger Backman, president of The Travel Partnership Corporation; Vincent Wolfington, chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council; Kathy Sudeikis, national president and CEO of ASTA; and Peter de Jong, president and CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association. Tralliance is also testing a .travel directory [www.directory.travel], which will most likely be launched later this year. The free service will let consumers and retailers search for information offered by .travel registrants.