Amen to that! dot travel isn't viable as a public resource and noone remembers dot travel so the brandability and direct navigation isn't there. Whomever owns travel.com is getting their traffic. The Travel.com guys should sell domains off their root and would become more successful. IMHO.

Shane

As a representative of Tralliance and .travel, I wanted to personally clarify some of our most recent changes.

As many of you know, Tralliance is celebrating a new beginning for .travel. In late December, new policy changes were put into place, and purchases and use of .travel domain names have increased significantly.

The new policies are based on use (something that no other domain requires). As of 12/21/07, all .travel domain name holders must ensure that content relevant to their specific domain names be on their website within 60 days of purchase.

In addition to the policy changes, recent news is sparking excitement. Earlier this month, our parent company theglobe.com announced that it intends to sell Tralliance Corporation to a privately held company, The Registry Management Co. This sale is intended to take place in the second quarter of 2008.

You may ask, how does this affect the current Tralliance team and the future of the .travel domain?

The intended sale will not result in changes to management, policies, or to Tralliance's relationship with the TTPC. We will continue to manage and promote the .travel domain name. Under the new structure, Tralliance will operate more efficiently and cost savings generated from the transaction will allow us to allocate more dollars to the promotion of the domain.

You can begin to see this shift in promotion with our participation at industry shows: TIA in Washington D.C., ITB in Berlin, and Le Map Monde in Paris. In addition, you will see an increased presence in trade publications, newsletters, and advertsing.

We look forward to witnessing the continued success of .travel.

Heidi Siefkas-Cassemiro

FYI, the sale is to a private company owned by Michael Egan, who controls theglobe.com, so it's just a paper shuffle. Part of the deal is that one of Egan's other companies will buy 25,000 domains, although they don't explain how he plans to comply with the rule that all .travel domains have to have .travel content unless he's going to point them all at the same squat page.

More info on my blog http://weblog.johnlevine.com/ICANN/traveldrain.html

Actually, under the new rules, in practice anyone can buy .travel domains. They OK'ed me on behalf of my three page plane ticket web site in 45 minutes, then a salesman emailed me trying to get me to buy as many domains as possible.

A quick look at .aero makes it clear why .travel was doomed, and if in retrospect the best it could have been was a nest of PPC squats, why bother?