Time to move ahead !

FIVE years ago the travel and tourism industry decided to acquire its ownInternet domain sTLD* called .travel. ( Sponsored TopLevel Domain)This was done after IATA had on its own initiated the process with ICANN. Togive the project greater credibility a number of travel agency and tourismentities joined forced on equal basis. Today The Travel PartnershipCorporation (TTPC), registered in Washington DC, has some 120 memberswith equal status. Through its UFTAA membership IAAI is a member ofTTPC.The role of TTPC is to monitor the commercial activity and safeguard theinterests of the travel and tourism constituency making sure that the sTLDremains a bona fide industry owned service and operated in accordance with international regulations(ICANN) and in the interest of itsmembers.Not only is .travel today considereda model for other sponsoreddomains, but it has also by McAfeebeen rated as the safest Internetdomain in comparison with .com ,.net and others. This givessatisfaction and shows that thestrict criteria laid down at thebeginning is serving well andimprovements and changes areonly made after careful duediligence. The Compliancecommittee has only had onecomplain to deal with during thepast five years – an exceptionalachievement.Travel agents have shown greatresilience and the doom of theindustry predicted years ago whenthe airlines broke out has nothappened. As late as 2010 about70% of IATA member airline ticketsales still comes via travelagencies, either local offices or agency web-sites. In Middle East and some parts of Asia the proportion iseven higher. 191 Billion US$ (2009) came via 86 BSP offices worldwide.Behind the technology there are humans and behind each sell there has tobe a product. The question is to have the product and the customer to meetand here the web is for the moment the most cost effective means. Manyagencies have their own web-sites, but have their really established a websales strategy or is the web merely a visit card, a passive catalog. How doesthe customer find you product. In most case the web-sites of traditionaltravel agencies are not selling. The secret to a successful web-site is in the composition of the web-address or addresses. The address has to tell theconsumer what you do and what you are. It has to be composed of wordsthat the consumer will look for in his search for services. A name likePaul.com tells the consumer nothing, but Paul.travel immediately relates itto travel. Even better is to tell the consumer what you sell e.g.italianvillagevacation.travel , huntingfishing.travel or artenthusiasts.traveletc – these are self-explanatory and the word “travel” lifts your companyhigher in all search-engines as compared to “com” and other similaracronyms.Tralliance has many success stories from small and middle sized travelagencies who have found new clients from markets they could never havereached without a .travel web address. The .travel is a very cost efficientmarketing tool.The travel and tourism industry should embrace it own .travel domain andbuild it to a strong brand showing that we are capable of master our owndestiny in faithfully serving our customers through implementation of newtechnology and new additional sales channels.

Author – Birger BäckmanChairman & President TTPC; Former Secretary General- UFTAA.www.tralliance.travel or www.ttpc.travel ( IAAI is a member ofTTPC Through its UFTAA membership )