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November 20, 2009 - I welcome this opportunity to comment on the new gTLD proposal as such, since there seems to be a debate about the underlying demand for new generic Top-level domains. The International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA) is the only global business organization representing the hospitality industry worldwide. It is a global network of independent and chain operators, national associations, hospitality suppliers and educational School in the hotel and restaurant industry, representing over 750.000 establishments in more than 150 countries. Officially recognized by the United Nations, IH&RA monitors and lobbies all international agencies on behalf of this industry, estimated to comprise 300.000 hotels and 8 million restaurants, employ 70 million people and contribute 950 billion USD annually to the global economy. The International Hotel & Restaurant Association fully supports the plans to introduce .hotel as new TLD. We cooperate with HOTEL Top-Level-Domain GmbH to establish the .hotel top-level domain for the benefit of the global hotel business on the Internet. DOTHOTEL is dedicated to develop services and products to enhance the efficiency and convenience of e-commerce for hotels, their organizations and associated businesses worldwide. The major of aim of .hotel is the creation of a namespace of security, trust and credibility for the global hotel business and its providers, suppliers and customers. There is a continued demand for hotel related domains. A .hotel top-level domain will make hotels more intuitively accessible and will give consumers greater confidence by added security features such as verification of .hotel domain names. It also provides the global hotel business with a voice and improved visibility on the Internet. Doing business for suppliers and providers will become easier and more reliable, new business models will evolve. These are goals which are fully in alignment with the International Hotel & Restaurant Association's tasks for the global hotel industry. We are convinced that the creation of the .hotel namespace will be a significant step towards our industry. We strongly encourage ICANN to go ahead swiftly with the new gTLD process. This will not only enable the merits of this innovative concept to be proven but may also have direct effects on the global hotel industry. Dr. Ghassan AIDI |President & Chief Executive Officer Mobile : +4179 8116677|Executive Offices Fax: +4122 5948145 1-3 Rue Varembe| 1202 Geneva| Switzerland Tel: +4122 7347942| Fax: +4122 5948145| Email- ghassanaidi@xxxxxxxxx IH&RA is the only global business organisation representing the Hospitality Worldwide since 140 years. Founded in 1869 as International Hotelmen's Alliance , become in 1946 the International Hotels Association and in 1978 finally become IH&RA Its members are national Hotels and Restaurants association as well as National & International Hotels & Restaurants Chain throughout the World. Representing an estimate 300,000 Hotels and 6 Million restaurants . Officially recognized by United Nations as the only representative of the Private sector Worldwide <<attachment: winmail.dat>> |