.travel Wild Card - Travel Community View
Dear Sirs: On behalf of The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC), the non-profit organization formed to sponsor the .travel TLD, with a membership of more than 120 travel and tourism associations worldwide, I submit this letter in support of Tralliance Corporation?s request to introduce a Wild Card service. The global travel community has joined forces and worked tirelessly over the last few years to achieve a unified presence on the Internet through the .travel TLD. We are pleased with the rate of domain name adoption at this stage of the initiative and expect the success of .travel to have a far-reaching positive impact on our industry and travellers as well. We are dismayed, however, that the lack of a service, as proposed by Tralliance, is leading to hundreds of thousands of frustrated consumers who are among the first to look for and access .travel domains. In today?s environment, particularly when consumers are still learning about the .travel domain and are eager to access information in this new space, landing on an error page creates a negative perception and an inordinately confusing experience for end users. The .travel domain has limitless potential for our industry for small and large travel entities alike. For those travel companies that were unable to register their rightful names in other TLDs, .travel offers an authenticated space in which to do business. Tralliance?s proposed service serves the efforts of TTPC through automatically providing an information (landing) page about the TLD and the requirements to register a domain name every time a typo or unregistered domain is keyed in to any browser anywhere in the world. It is unthinkable that the potential of .travel could be compromised because consumers and the travel trade would be denied a simple landing page that legitimizes every .travel search. For .travel registrants that have made the commitment to move to the industry exclusive TLD, they are understandably anxious to see continued traction, which the Wild Card service will undoubtedly enhance. It would be extremely disappointing if, after all of the years of work to bring the .travel TLD to the Internet, ICANN would consider denying this important service especially since the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) has clearly stated that such a service is already in existence for small and well-defined top level domains. There is no question that .travel meets the criteria of small and well-defined top level domains. Furthermore, there are quite a number county code TLDs and one sponsored TLD that provide such a service today, demonstrating that there is no negative impact on the stability and integrity of the Internet. Therefore, we trust that ICANN will follow the lead of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), in its 19 September 2003 commentary on the architectural concerns on the use of DNS Wildcards, which states: "We hesitate to recommend a flat prohibition against wildcards in "registry"-class zones, but strongly suggest that the burden of proof in such cases should be on the registry to demonstrate that their intended use of wildcards will not pose a threat to stable operation of the DNS or predictable behavior for applications and users." Tralliance, we are confident, will meet this burden of proof in line with existing Wild Card-using registries. In closing, I reiterate the support of TTPC for the proposed Wild Card service and we trust that ICANN will affirm Tralliance?s request so that roadblocks between the travel and tourism community and consumers are removed thereby resulting in better user experience and enhanced e-commerce. Sincerely, Birger Bäckman President & Chairman The Travel Partnership Corporation Attachment:
TTPC - Wild Card Ltr.pdf |