Tuesday 29 January 2013

ONLINE TRAVEL INDUSTRY & ITS PITFALLS

Gone are the days when the sole source of travel information and services came from the high-street travel agent. The online travel industry has blossomed in the past decade, now supplying absolutely everything needed for a trip, except maybe for the actual experience itself. Nowadays if you happen to contract the travel itch, the first place you go for answers will invariably be the Internet.

Apart from adult websites (naughty.xxx) and spam sites, Travel has become the biggest online industry. In fact, completely contrary to popular predictions 10-20 years ago, worldwide interconnectivity has boosted travel rather than making it obsolete. This has meant that the way we think about travel has changed, or rather how we approach it.


Now, people are attracted to different parts of the world because they are able to connect with them before departure. This is partly due to the desire for hassle-free and engaging foreign experiences. By scoping-out the layout and situation before they even leave, individuals have become more willing to travel to previously dubious locations as well as places that they would never have heard of before. Knowledge and therefore access to this knowledge has brought out a more adventurous side to us, all thanks to the Internet.

There is a problem however, remember those spam sites that I mentioned earlier? In recent years, there has been a plague of spam sites pretending to be travel operators. Due to the nature of travel bookings, money changes hands before the travellers even leave home, this did not go unnoticed. Dubious characters and online criminals began to send us all on completely fabricated and fictitious holidays. I’m sure we can all offer up names of those we know who have had this happen to them. 


Gone are the days when customers had faith in travel companies. Now we trawl the Internet trying to find the cheapest trips possible, cutting out the travel operators. We have to, just incase it all falls through. Because if the rug is pulled from underneath us, we can say "at least I didn't lose a fortune on it!"

That is why .travel domains were created. Only bona fide travel companies can own one and they are regulated by a Travel Authority, specifically set up to manage and authenticate the domains.

Problem solved!

It was such a shame that the large travel companies boycotted them upon release. If not for the badly managed release of the .travel domains, we would currently be free from travel spammers and criminals. Not only that, but travel customers would actually have more faith in their operators and would be more open to experiencing those one-off unforgettable trips that require leaps of faith.


Follow the link for pro's and con's about owning a .travel domain

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