It looks like a brand new .travel domain name may hit the web as early as next year. The Travel
Partnership Corporation, a consortium of the airline industry and other travel industry companies, has been succesful
in it’s preliminary application to ICANN, the body which manages domain name conventions.
While the .travel domain name has been the object of some debate and controversy, it has the potential to make a
positive difference for online travel consumers searching the web. Tour operators, travel agents, tourism
destinations and other travel-related entities will all need to apply for a .travel domain name and meet eligibility
and name selection requirements for registration. In theory, this will mean preserved brands and clearer search
results; when you search for your favourite hotel, for example, a .travel result should actually be that hotel, and not
a random company trying to flog that chain’s hotel rooms. This should make a difference to the people running over
168,000,000 travel searches every month; though how well this will work for consumers remains to be seen.