A new online domain for the travel industry is now open for business.
From October 3rd, Airlines, theme parks, restaurants, tourism offices and others in travel and tourism are eligible for Web sites and e-mail addresses ending in “.travel.”
New York-based Tralliance Corp, a unit of Internet communications company The Globe, won approval to run “.travel” earlier this year from the Internet’s key oversight agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.
The new domain could give consumers confidence that they are dealing with a legitimate travel business or group, though the mantra of “buyer beware” applies: Operators of the domain won’t be performing any credit or criminal background checks or offering any guarantees.
ICANN has been creating new Internet suffixes partly because existing ones like “.com” are crowded, making easy-to-remember addresses difficult to obtain. Nonetheless, Web sites that already have a “.com” name are likely to keep it and automatically redirect visitors to the new “.travel” site instead.
