The first websites using the dot-travel domain name went live back in October 2005 in a flurry of media announcements and hype. Since then the hype has subsided and there appears to be little evidence of a major take up of the new Dot.Travel domains.

The benefits of taking a new Dot.Travel domain are presented as;

- improved branding and connection with the travel and tourism industry.

- enforced authentication by an independent third party which reduces the likelihood of cyber-squatting and domain name speculators.

- Dot.Travel domain holders can get listings in the internet's first global travel directory and dedicated search engine.

The global travel directory and dedicated search engine could potentially be a useful promotional tool. However, are these compelling enough reasons to add a Dot.Travel to your .com or .co.uk domains?

Many travel and holiday firms have spent millions of pounds and many years investing in their .com and .co.uk domains. so the addition of another top level domain would simply dilute their online branding for little perceived benefit.

Also, you can only effectively promote one domain in the search engines, so if your existing domain is already positioned well in the natural search results why would you want to start all over again with a new domain?

Anyone that has been involved in the launch of a new website recently will know that a major investment in time and resources is now required to create the kind of exposure necessary for a site to be commercially successful.

So, if there is a risk that an additional domain could dilute your existing online branding, and promoting this new domain in the search engines would be a time consuming and costly exercise, is there really a compelling argument for the Dot.Travel domain? Could the Dot.Travel domain go the same way as dotTV and dotBiz?

About the Author

Mark Scriven is the M.D of Turismotec Ltd, an online travel marketing agency. Turismotec publish a bi-monthly search marketing newsletter called etravel.success. Subscribe to etravel.success here.