.travel is now a permanent part of the foundation of the World Wide Web. As travel and tourism businesses register their .travel domains they are not only reshaping the next generation Internet but making history by playing their role in this defining moment in the evolution of travel industry.

Tourism leaders are gaining a better understanding of the value of .travel, and as more and more tourism entities are actively using their .travel domains in large-scale marketing efforts, nations that have not yet have been able to register all of their names are telling us that the additional time is critical. We believe the extension is in the best interest of the global tourism industry, which is who we serve.

The goal is to serve the global travel and tourism industry by making the .travel registry site as user friendly as possible.

The .travel Registry is now open and we are inviting all the world's travel-related businesses to claim their space on the Internet.

U.S. travel businesses and organizations must move quickly to realize the value of their industry-exclusive .travel Internet domain in the global context. Protecting our nation's valuable tourism assets can be done by simply registering them with their .travel domain names.

We've got a very good base foundation to move forward. It is going to enable consumers to find very specific information they are looking for.