Tourism Fiji, the official travel and tourism agency of the government of Fiji, has registered the name Fiji.travel and has now launched www.Fiji.travel as its official tourism website.
According to the Registry other country governments have made the same move to .travel.
Germany.travel, Colombia.travel, Egypt.travel, Ecuador.travel, and Canada.travel are all now using the .travel extension for their official tourism sites.
Many countries, cities and states have been using visit…..com domain names for their official tourism sites.
This maybe a growing trend to move to the right of the dot as new gTLD’s get ready to launch.
What are your thoughts about the move?
well, .COM profit centers.. yadda yadda blah blah…
…uniformed non-expert market analysts.. yadda yadda bleh bah
..conspiracy attempt to sabotage the .COM kingdom
but seriously.. stuff like this will likely continue to happen in the future. not all at once. but with 1,000 TLDs the snowball will start rolling because the options will be available.
the domainers that think it will be necessary for consumers to remember 1,000 different TLDs will start to understand. its not about 1 certain TLD gaining traction right away – its about people realizing .whatever exists and being OK with it.
I think this is a good move. It will help them POP in search engine results.
The most loyal .travel customers we have are for destinations. Governments were given preference in .travel, so this assured that national tourism boards could get their country name.
The same is not true, however, for state and city names. These are up for grabs to anyone who wants them.
tom
encirca
It bodes well for the new gTLDs. Only one on the list not registered at all is: Columbia.travel.
The actual travel site for Colombia is Colombia.Travel the country is spelled with a “o” not a “u” like the school in new york
I understand what you’re saying Mike, but you could look at it the other way: The .Travel GTLD was launched 8 years ago. Fiji has decided to use it now, it’s not that big news. It’s also a premium domain that’s been reserved for a country.
Does anyone think that the new gTLDs could be successful without rivalling .com and ccTLDs?
I mean surely there’s always going to be a market for premium .com domains for brands to build on? For example, prime location in major cities is still extremely valuable regardless of whether there’s additional space to build on elsewhere. I’d like to know who owns the Fiji.com domain though, shows a Sedo page at the moment.
I’ve said this before though, moving your brand to the right of the dot will require a brand change name in many cases. For example, Bet365.Bet is incompatible, as is TravelSupermarket.Travel etc.
Affiliate
A couple of thoughts
When the .travel extension was launched it was an sTLD not a gTLD meaning that it was restricted not like .XXX restricted where you just have to click a box, but restricted to licensed travel agents who need to send their license in before they could get a name.
Its only been unrestricted for a couple of years, maybe less
All of the new gTLD’s will help each other, which is why you can’t look at what’s happened before to predict what will happen today
So in actuality the .travel extension almost relaunced a year or so ago and with all the new gTLD’s coming these countries (except for colombia which actually has been using their .travel domain for years) see what’s coming and decided to make .travel their official site.
Ye, I agree with you. I’ve said this to a few people: individual extensions don’t need to take off, people just needs to get used to seeing the dot move to the left of the brand. e.g. Sky.Sports, The.Domains, STA.Travel etc.
when hundreds of gTLD’s are launched…. then thousands maybe… then some 8 years goes by like here and you get a few random cases of people trying out these alternate TLD’s…
a few random cases multiplied by 1,000 or so is a lot.
general public doesnt care about dorky domain landrushes… maybe with hundreds of options to choose from they will eventually – but i doubt it.
but in domainers’ minds when landrush starts they picture the general public lined up at a starting line, gun shot goes off into the air… and people start racing and the clock starts ticking…if the general public isnt “aware” of the TLD in a couple years time it “dies” in the domainers minds.. even though the registries themselves are profitable..
this isnt an xbox game release. it aint the new pair of jordans.
also, people talking about all/most businesses switching TLD’s – nobody knows this will actually happen like that and it isnt even necessary for existing companies to switch TLDs for these new gTLD’s to catch on. many people act like new businesses/people dont get online everyday and that for gTLDs to be used the existing businesses will need to switch over to them..
Well there will be marketing around the new gTLD like never before and the new gTLD operators are going to be the suits but people like .Co, domainers turned registries like Frank
Second domainers will be on the front lines the first days like always.
End users will come later
i think probably most domainers that are 100% sure they will all be a massive failure are coming from one angle:
they’re asking themselves how are domainers going to make money with these? if it seems unlikely or harder than it is now then that = massive failure
which is why things are said like “but a bunch of these alternate TLD’s have already been released and havnt made a huge splash… why would 1,000 or so make any difference?”
and they’re right.. predicting which gTLD’s are able to be flipped gets a bit harder when there are so many options. but that doesnt mean that from the consumer side they’re completely useless.
@OnTheInterWeb
Are you basically saying that you still think say in 5 years time that .com/ccTLDs will still be dominant but with additional new gTLDs in the mix?
I’m pretty argumentative when it comes to new gTLDs, but it’s only because it drives me crazy not being able to comprehend what the internet will look like in 5-10 years time – not just as a domainer but someone interested in internet marketing.
I’ve just always thought they internet and brands need a universal, brand neutral TLD such as .com/co.uk. So that if your brand is Bet365 then you have Bet365.com, or Facebook you have Facebook.com etc. If you start using descriptive domains then your brand almost gets “lost” in the domain, e.g. Boohoo.beauty, BA.aero, Facebook.social, Mashable.tech etc..
I know some of those have applied for their own brand gTLDs but just making a hypothetical point.
I think the fact that governments are choosing to use non .com/their own cctld for sites is quite important too. That means there will be a relatively stable stream of taxpayers money going into it.
Its not entirely down to some “Marketing Analyst” as to whether they get used or not, this comes down to what the great and the good decide at golf clubs/working mens clubs across respective nations – and stuffy civil servants.
Public funds while notoriously easy to steal are actually quite hard to spend. No committee is ever gonna vote to spend 3 hospitals, 100 schools and a division of airforce worth of cash on a .com name when they can pick up the .whatever for a bunch less.
@Affiliate
not really sure. not being able to fully comprehend what the internet will look like in 10 years is just being honest i think. probably some experts can predict certain niches better than others but 10 years is a long time.
but the way .COM grew so naturally i cant see it dropping off the map any time soon. or ever..
so thats where domainers come in and get all defensive because they recognize .COM is so ingrained – its just some take it to the extremes suggesting new businesses wont try new things though and that this is a zero sum game… its not.
.com will be dominate however the aftermarket is going to be tough for at least a while, certainly on the high end where options are opened.
Plenty of governments seem to be fine getting a .travel domain for free or $100 a year or whatever the deal is than spending $100K to get a visit….com domain
Same with businesses, startups etc.
Theyll probably even be happy to spend around $1200 on the .whatever, giving the lucky domainer who picks it up first for $100 their 12x multiple with ease heh 😀
Pity noone applied for “.whatever” as its gonna be the second most talked about extension in history lmaooooooooooo
It’s worth noting that here in the UK, you basically have business sites on .co.uk, universities on .ac.uk, government sites on .gov.uk, and charities on .org.uk.
Given that, my perspective is that it would be harder for the new gTLDS to penetrate the UK.
Anyone have any ideas on how ccTLDs vs new gTLDs will play out? That’s another interesting topic!
I think the Geo new gTLD’s will do well so where there are major cities with their own new gTLD i think it will negatively effect ccTLD values, think .london vs the ccTLD
Web are basically ecstatic that people will be trained in the art of direct navigation by using .Whatevers,have had this position from the beginning of their announcement.
The mere fact that major players the gTLD applicants have chosen to try out Pure Play Generic markers = gTLDs to try to market Traffic back to their .COM Profit centers tells you that they know the power of Generic pure play Marketing Tools.
The catch twenty 22 for them is they do not control the .COM Pure Play Generics ,someone else controls these powerfull devices, it could be you, if you play your cards right. Whats the difference ? their right of the dot is not what consumers will trust to transact on? Is the picture getting clearer here?
Many advocates are becoming front line propoganda machines for these many sponsors who will profit at, you the End-Users expense. Ricks advice in getting around all this wasted use of capital is sound Online Marketing Advice that will protect you from the high online failure rate that these other Marketers will spawn for their clients.
Gratefully , Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Thank You MHB for bringing this article to our attention. This reinforces the Dominant .COM Profit Centers positioning in Online Marketing Strategies.
Its nice to agree on something don’t you think?
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
“i think it will negatively effect ccTLD values, think .london vs the ccTLD”
Something like homes.london versus homes.co.uk?
I don’t think one effects the other very much. Maybe a dash of perception in the domainer to domainer sales channel but not among people who matter.
A guitar shop in London would be happy to own guitars.london.
Anyone in the UK involved with guitars would want guitars.co.uk.
A lot of guitar shops in London would much rather have the .co.uk than the .london if given the choice.
I just don’t see city TLDs pressuring well adopted country codes very much.
Jweff,
Time to talk turkey and get down to real specifics using real math. Possibly even call in your armory of contact group experts (others are invited to pipe in).
Please help me make a case with a corporate client (real example). My clients spends $100 million a yearn on advertising/ marketing. You have stated that 80% of that budget must go to a (pure) dot com (profit) center. That would mean spending $80 million on a domain name. Now first why would they spend ten times what the could buy the best name for? Second, if they spend $80 million on marketing they need to get back 10x that amount or $800 million in sales. Can you run a proforma and show me how this return is calculated on domain name alone without spending a dime on search manipulation. Oh and third my client is sears and cant spend the $80 million on sears.com because they on their domain for $10. Also they are not subject to mass market confusion because everyone knows where to find sears. That’s the result of brand building which separated winners from losers long before Google was part of the equation. If you want someone to find you your mission is to tell them not wait for them to go to Google and look?
Please give me a detailed response with spread sheets and ten year ebita run rates consistent with what the Rockefellas would expect of you to drop on their desk.
Sorry for cts-infused typos.
Hello Owen,
Obviously Sears does not fit our criteria, are you surprised?
Yes there are a few SMART Money people already positioned are you surprised again?
Whats the point of running #s on an extreme situation I suggest you ask them for a Dunn&Bradstreet or Annual report, I thought you would know all this.
This diatribe of yours proves nothing, and does not negate our models effectiveness for most all Online businesses in the future.
CHEERS and GIGGLES
Gratefully, Jeff schneider (Contact group) (Metal tiger)
i swear to jebus crisp.. if Jeff is a troll it is the best ive ever seen on the internet.
best job staying in character ever.. the “cheers and giggles” makes me question this though..
hmmm
First off you may ask yourselves, who is being trolled ?
They say most people do not welcome Messengers of Change.
Shits and Giggles
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Please watch the cussing.
“our models effectiveness for most all Online businesses in the future.”
The problem is you criticize the present / problems but you don’t articulate any of these solutions or “models”
If you are a messenger of change I think the change we need is to change the messenger because you are not getting your message across (though with each post your come out f character and your identity s 99% close to being unveiled.)
Looks like we bagged a “ninja” with 20K followers 🙂
Seymour aka Denise I don’t know who Jeff is other than an actor who plays a dozen roles and lives in 35 places at once online, but you I do know. I just don’t have the energy to search the old board archives to put my finger on it. But I will because these kind of puzzles try my curiosity until solved in spite of a million revenue generating deadlines I am behind on.
My educated guess is that Jeff’s goal is to appear so insane and get himself engrained into search results of people we search that we inevitably stumble onto UseBiz.com to check it out and that’s when the demons get installed in your system folder. 🙂 (purge alias “web liar”)
and by acting this way Owen you become part of the problem, not the solution
oh and Denise I found your real name it’s Graham Cooper
http://www.dnforum.com/f557/camgirls-com-dnf-member-wowser-thread-441225.html
Graham give it a rest.
check.
I think using .travel is cool and its easy for user too . lets suppose they just remember your company name not domain name …. if they know that your company is travel company then they just have to type companyname.travel and enter…. here is your site ..:)