The Chamber of Tourism All-China Federation of Industry Commerce (COTAFIC) and Tralliance Corporation, the global Registry for .travel, announced at the International Hotel & Restaurant Association's 42nd Annual Conference that the COTAFIC will serve as a .travel authenticator, a relationship that will accelerate the marketing of Chinese tourist assets to travel consumers.
The COTAFIC is a nationwide organization in China, and also covering the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions, initiated and formed by the private tourist sector comprising airlines, chain hotels, prominent tourist locations, souvenir manufacturers and noteworthy travel agencies.
"The COTAFIC's role as an authenticator for .travel will be an important step in the worldwide marketing of China tourism," said Ron Andruff, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tralliance Corporation, New York. "China's tourism industry, in the next two decades, is poised to experience unparalleled growth. The combination of pent-up demand to experience China, the eagerness of the Chinese tourism industry to host visitors from other countries and its new tourism infrastructure capable of accommodating large numbers of foreign visitors, position China as one of the world's great new destinations. By capitalizing on new technology, like .travel, Chinese tourism marketers can bypass the traditional, costly marketing steps previously necessary to build a visitor audience."
The COTAFIC and Tralliance Corporation will work together to communicate information about authentication and registration of .travel domain names, as well as how to establish product and service profiles for placement in the .travel Directory. The authentication process is the obligatory first step to obtain .travel Internet domains.
"For many Chinese tourism marketers, this will be one of their first forays into marketing to other cultures. Because of the global 'leveling' effect of .travel, Chinese marketers of destinations can market their tourism assets on the Internet and, within a very short period, reach a significantly large audience and command the same attention as more well known places and experiences in other parts of the world," said Madame Wang Ping, COTAFIC chairwoman. Madame Wang indicated that the .travel Registry will be assisting the COTAFIC with communications to Chinese tourism marketers to clarify both the opportunity represented by .travel and the requirements to register .travel domain names.
The COTAFIC, using their already established channels of communication within The Republic of China will also help to proliferate the awareness of the process of application and registration of so-called .travel Place Names (country; cities; town; historic, heritage and sacred sites, national parks and preserves) in an effort to assist the National Tourism Organization of China with regard to the Nations' Priority Right, according to Andruff.
The .travel Internet domain is currently in the limited launch phase, as required by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international non-profit body that maintains oversight responsibility for the Internet. The limited launch phase will conclude just prior to .travel's official launch in January 2006.