Wednesday, 30 January 2013

.TRAVEL DOMAINS – an inauspicious beginning

Due to widely held beliefs and speculative rumours, many web developers and domain registrars hold . travel domains in disregard. Without going into details, I will attempt to illuminate as to why the .travel domain release was such a flop.

The Idea for .travel was created by IATA (International Air Transport Association). They realised the problems developing within the travel industry, as outlined in the Online travel industry and its pitfalls, and applied for the creation of the industry regulated and authenticated domain.

Due to the procedures and processing of the application from that point onwards, the travel industry’s golden child became a point of disgust and disappointment for the entire industry. This is the bit which gets murky. Unproven to this day, widely held conjectures involve rumours of back-room deals and pocket-lining. Created as the next step in an industry’s evolution, .travel was converted into a money-making scheme. Due to this, the travel industry replied in kind by boycotting its release in 2001.

12 years down the track, the .travel domain is still available and still offers all the promises that it was always intended to. In spite of this, the majority of the travel industry has either forgotten about it or is unaware of its existence. There is a small minority however who are beginning to adopt traffic accumulative practices which hinges upon the nature of the .travel domains.

Only a bona fide travel company can own a .travel domain. Each company must apply for certification to buy a domain, thereby ensuring that illicit and illegal practices are shut out. There is a loophole however. This loophole is not available for spammers or con artists, but for SEOs.

So what exactly does a .travel domain actually bring to the table, and how can it be used for SEO purposes?

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