Three Million .travel Domain Names Released for Immediate Registration

January 3, 2007; 07:15 AM
EnCirca, the leading .travel Registrar, announces that three million travel destinations have been released for immediate registration. The released .travel domain names include cities; towns; heritage, iconic and sacred sites; national parks and other landmarks.

"Until now, the registration of millions of .travel domain names representing tourist destinations were restricted to governments and tourism boards", says Tom Barrett, President of EnCirca. "But now, these restrictions have been relaxed. These valuable .travel domain names can be registered today on a first-come, first-served basis to any travel-related company who can demonstrate valid use of their desired travel destination".

.travel is the only internet top-level domain name that allows government bodies and tourism boards to claim place names that correspond to cities, towns, heritage sites, pilgrim centers, sacred sites, national parks/preserves, and any other geographic location located in their region.

Governments and tourism boards may still claim their .travel destination names by contacting EnCirca (http://www.encirca.com). But governments will need to hurry since these names are now available on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration of country-specific names in .travel remains the exclusive right of the national governments to claim and use for tourism-related activity.

Eligibility for .travel Domain Names

Eligibility for these released travel place names are restricted to bona fide travel and tourism organizations who can demonstrate actual use of the desired .travel domain names.

Travel and tourism organizations are advised to quickly become authenticated and register using EnCirca's real-time registration interface at http://www.encirca.com/travel .

Iconic Place Names Reservation

About 10 percent of the newly released 3 million .travel domain names have been identified as "Iconic Place Names" and will be subject to a conditional release process, pending a 30-day public comment period being conducted by The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC.org), the advisory council for the .travel domain

Upon receiving an application by a commercial entity to register an Iconic Place Name, Tralliance will inform the government whose Place Name is being requested and provide such government the first right to register such name within thirty (30) days. If the governmental administration for such Place Name declines or does not take action to register the name within such thirty (30) day period, then Tralliance shall allow the commercial entity (applicant) to register the name.

Premium Names Auction

Certain generic .travel domain names, such as fun.travel, convention.travel, and cruises.travel have been reserved by Tralliance and may be sold at a premium price through an auction methodology. Prior to the sale of any premium name, Tralliance will obtain TTPC's approval of the names to be sold.

About EnCirca

As the world's leading .travel Registrar, thousands of government, non-profit tourism boards and commercial organizations already trust EnCirca as their official travel Registrar. EnCirca was formed in 2001 and is accredited by Tralliance and the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). For more information, see http://www.encirca.com.

Media Contact: Tom Barrett, [email protected] +1.781.942.9975 (voice), +1.781.823.8911 (fax)