UN-backed Internet tourism domain preserves countries’ right to their names

Countries around the world will have a priority right to register their nation, cities, and place names on an Internet Top Level Domain (TLD) travel registry under a new United Nations-backed tourism initiative aimed at resolving problems arising when these names have already been taken by other entities on other TLDs.

Tralliance Corporation, New York, the .travel Registry, in cooperation with the UN World Tourism Organization (WTO), has affirmed this priority and each country and city, as well as the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Word Heritage Sites, will now be able to register their valuable place names in the .travel Registry, beginning this autumn.

Thus, if other entities have already pre-empted the country’s name on the much-used .com TLD, for example, they now have their own travel-oriented TLD.

“Travel and tourism, while a major player on the Internet, has been operating without a clear identity,” WTO Deputy Secretary-General Dawid de Villiers said. “.travel domain names will bring enormous visibility to our Member States and clarity to all that their destinations have to offer.”

Countries will have until 31 March, 2006, to register their domain names with the .travel Registry before other legitimate travel or tourism entities, which may share the same names, have access to those names.

The prioritization will overcome the frustration felt by governments that characterized earlier TLD introductions, wherein many nations were pre-empted from registering domain names for their countries, cities, heritage and sacred sites.