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Username: thehacker
Date/Time: Fri, October 27, 2000 at 4:59 AM GMT
Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer V5.5 using Windows 98
Score: 5
Subject: IATA is the Wrong Choice

Message: 		 

 
                The following statement is from an industry leader.  His words echo my thoughts and desires.  And so, I repeat his words as my own!

      
   1. The scope of the travel industry as a global marketplace is too wide and diverse to allow a single sector, namely air carriers, to control a .travel TLD. Furthermore, airlines already have over-controlled and over-regulated travel initiatives and business, well beyond the airlines' general scope.

Controlling .travel would be yet another domination which should be avoided.


2. IATA will likely drive subsequent requests to use the .travel TLD as a significant revenue stream. IATA has a history of charging excessive amounts for essential services, and the fear that IATA will charge fees in excess of fair market value for TLD usage is not without foundation. While IATA maintains its status as a non-profit organization, it is mandated to raise the bulk of its revenues outside of airline membership fees in the association; .travel will become a major revenue source for IATA.


3. It would not be unexpected for IATA to reserve key domains within .travel for its or its members' premier usage. Therefore, those sectors seeking premier domains or preferred domains within .travel may find that these have been already reserved or restricted by IATA or made available at exorbitant prices.


4. IATA does not have an inclusive-enough or impartial-enough history to instill confidence that the .travel TLD would be maintained and administered in a manner which would be as fair and as unbiased as it could be. IATA's proclivity for accreditation standards and criterion which are in many cases heavy-handed and domineering is already well known. There is ample reason to fear that IATA's management of .travel would be no less oppressive.


Please consider three additional key points:


a) No one is objecting to the emergence of the .travel TLD. Our only concern is that any ownership or management of the .travel TLD is by an entity which will be commercially, financially, and legally fair and unbiased. IATA, as an airline cartel, simply does not satisfy this requirement.


b) Of the comments already posted on the heere, the vast majority
oppose the IATA application; of the handful of comments supporting IATA, most come from airline members of IATA. Not one single post from the car, hotel, tour operator or cruise line sector has been submitted. This clearly evidences IATA's lack of soliciting any support for its application from any of the key potential stakeholders in so vast an initiative.
  
     
     
 

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