FORT LAUDERDALE, FL-March 23, 2009- .travel, the travel and tourism industry’s exclusive Internet channel, reports an increase in adoption by major destinations worldwide.  In its short history, the benefits of .travel have been highlighted by the significant number of conversions by destinations and key industry organizations. The next stage of travel on the Internet is led by .travel and supported by the .travel community.

Here is a list of just some of the key travel industry players that have adopted .travel:

www.Colombia.travel, www.Argentina.travel,

www.ElSalvador.travel, www.Utah.travel,

www.Egypt.travel, www.Poland.travel,

www.PhiladelphiaUSA.travel, www.BruneiTourism.travel,

www.SriLanka.travel, www.TurismoChile.travel,

www.Cancun.travel, www.Slovakia.travel,

www.Canada.travel, www.MadeiraIslands.travel,

www.Montenegro.travel, www.Cannes.travel

.travel has become a global travel movement.  The era of when travel destinations competed with the clutter of the .com world on the Internet is coming to an end.  By creating an exclusive travel marketing channel, .travel is an essential tool for all aspects of travel from destinations to hotels to travel agents and more.

To learn more information about .travel, please visit www.travel.travel

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About .travel

.travel is the top-level domain created specifically for the travel and tourism industry. Any participant in the travel industry may own a .travel name. Unlike other top level domains such as .com or .org, relevant content must be published on each .travel site within a year of purchase. For more information on .travel, The Source for All Things Travel, please visit www.travel.travel

Last week, the .travel team traveled to NYC for the world renowned New York Times Travel Show taking place in the Javitz Convention Center. Expecting over 20,000 visitors over the 3 day event, the .travel team chose to participate on Friday, which was a trade specific day filled with industry players from every aspect of travel: travel agents, CVBs, associations, destinations, travel media, and more.  The day was broken into two parts:  the trade only exhibit and seminars and then the larger consumer based show.  Early in the day through the afternoon, .travel shared the exhibit floor with strategic partners such CLIA and NACTA and other companies such as PMG, eWaterways, and more.

Following the trade specific show and seminars, the official ribbon was cut to open the full exposition floor where countries, states, and resorts such as Canada.travel, Brazil, Argentina.travel, Aruba, and Thailand featured  their products to fellow industry peers and then to end consumers on the weekend.

Knowing that grabbing attention of your industry peers is key, many exhibitors offered wine, cheese, giveaways, and entertainment. The .travel team’s highlights were:

1) Vermont-the best cheese by far!

2) Aruba-the best dressed dancers.  Wow what colors!

3) St. Lucia-the best band playing soothing music from the Caribbean.

4) Utah.travel-the best giveaway with a free visit to the Grand Canyon.

After the show, it was time to explore the city that never sleeps! Indeed, there is no city like NYC! With so many attractions to offer from Times Square, the Empire State Building, Central Park and more, one can never forget New York. What a wonderful place to host a travel industry event! Nothing is better than, “the Capital of the World.”  It was an amazing trip and show.  The .travel team looks forward to participating in The New York Times Travel Show again next year!

If you attended and would like to add your favorites, please comment.

The Celebrations of World Tourism Day

Featured Many .travel Community Members

Created originally in 1970, World Tourism Day is celebrated each year on September 27^th. This year the occasion was hosted in Lima, Peru and brought together a group of the leading public and private tourism stakeholders, representatives of civil society and of the UN system. This year’s festivities addressed the ever-apparent need for global climate response by the travel and tourism industry.

As part of these celebrations, many organizations took advantage of launching new projects, initiatives, and websites. Among many of the programs featured and discussed, .travel was a reoccurring theme. As a continuation of the celebrations, .travel wanted to welcome these initiatives to the .travel community:

ClimateSolutions.travel was launched to serve as the central gateway of information and available solutions to help the tourism sector respond to climate change. Designed by the UNWTO with the support of Microsoft, ClimateSolutions.travel is a collaborative effort to achieve Climate Neutral Tourism. To learn more and help your organization respond to climate change, please visit www.ClimateSolutions.travel

Argentina.travel was also launched as part of the celebrations of World Tourism Day. Although not in Lima, but in Mar de Plata, Argentina, the site was unveiled as a way for the country to address its need for a dramatic web presence to further engage and educate travelers about all that Argentina has to offer. With a goal of roughly 5.59 million international tourists in 2010, Argentina has made the decision to lead its campaign with www.Argentina.travel (*As stated in “El país ya tiene su sitio web de turismo” on Yahoo! T Noticias)

Earthlung.travel also was part of the discussions in Lima. Although launched last October, Earthlung.travel was featured in Lima for its innovative project and being a pioneer of the travel industry. www.Earthlung.travel focuses on various areas that are quintessential to global climate response such as stopping deforestation, reforestation, use of energy conservation programs, and solving pollution by going to its source. This program aims to make Sri Lanka a carbon neutral to assist destination by 2018.

Although mentioned above are only a select portion of all of the important World Tourism Day initiatives, .travel salutes the efforts of all that participated in the World Tourism Day and look forward to sharing in all of their future successes. In the case that an event or program was not mentioned, .travel welcomes your comments and information.