Travel is among the first sectors to get its own domain as it accounts for a third of all web expenditure. But dot-travel still has a lot of work ahead if it’s to reach its objective as the recognised domain name for online travel.
Few of the 21,000 dot-travel domains registered have been activated, with the industry’s larger players simply registering addresses as a ‘defensive’ move. In fact, hotel chains Hyatt (hyatt.travel) and Sol Melia Hotels and Resorts (solmelia.travel) appear to be the only worldwide brands with working dot-travel sites.
Unfortunately, Tralliance, the US firm tasked with the dot-travel roll out, doesn’t measure how many dot-travel sites are in use – but research on search engines shows travel isn’t fully behind the dot-travel concept.
Tralliance president Ron Andruff has relinquished his chief executive role to spend more time convincing the industry of the merits of dot-travel.
Andruff said he was pleased with the progress of the domain, but conceded there’s more work to do to convince the major brands to activate their dot-travel domains.
Lastminute.com is the perfect example of a leading retailer that refuses to activate a dot-travel address because it believes the dot-com domain is central to its brand.
Andruff warned: “It’s a foolish mistake. If a company has a strong brand then a dot-travel address doesn’t damage that.”
Where Tralliance has been successful is in engaging with national governments to register dot-travel addresses for their key tourism landmarks.
The Chinese government has just activated its dot-travel site (china.travel).
Andruff has just completed a major project to register 3,000 heritage sites in Africa and is confident up to 90% of the world’s heritage sites will be signed up by the end of the year.
He also claims the domain has been popular with small and medium-sized travel companies, which have struggled to make their mark online.
Tralliance has started marketing dot-travel in the US with TV advertising. It also sponsored the Mongol Rally, an 8,000-mile charity trek from London to Mongolia, in July and has launched a travel-specific search engine called Search.travel.
Andruff defended the marketing efforts so far, adding similar TV campaigns are planned for other markets, including the UK.
“The people moaning there hasn’t been any marketing are the same ones that haven’t got behind it,” he said.
“Three years from now the travel industry will ask itself why the dot-travel domain was ever being questioned.”
Dot-travel: against
Cheapflights chief executive David Soskin claims the dot-travel domain as “a money-making opportunity” by registry company Tralliance. He said neither the industry nor consumers are demanding a specific travel domain, and believes it will make the Internet more confusing. “Consumers are not protesting because they are dissatisfied with existing web domains. The travel industry is not claiming it will change its life.” Select World Travel is one of the few UK travel companies to have activated a dot-travel address. Owner Lee Harrison is delighted with the increased profile the address has given his company, an independent high-street agency in Malvern, Worcester, Harrison claims traffic and bookings have risen significantly since adopting selectworld.travel. He believes the site has greater visibility on the search engines. “I have had calls from Hong Kong and Belgium,” he said.Dot-travel: for