.travel發起人及董事長已經下台了

[哈啦]

.travel的發起人和註冊局董事長已在七月一日下台一鞠躬。


Ron Andruff, President, CEO and founder of the registry managing the .travel top-level domain, Tralliance Corporation, has stepped down. The following is an open letter from Mr. Andruff regarding this departure.

The purpose of this letter is to advise you that, effective July 1st, I have left my position at Tralliance Corporation.

As I reflect back to June 2000, when Cherian Mathai and I had the idea to create an online directory of all travel and tourism entities in the world, I believed then - as I do now - that such a directory would be of immense value to travelers. It would allow virtually every travel entity or destination, the world over and no matter their size, to bring their products and services to a true global marketplace. This marketplace would be available in all languages and character sets and would deliver results in an unbiased and equitable manner. .travel - the industry’s exclusive domain on the Internet - would be (as it has become) the ideal framework to deliver on the promise. So began this past seven year odyssey.

The travel and tourism industry’s visionary leaders that we sought out and/or encountered along the way quickly understood, supported and promoted the initiative within their spheres of influence and today, the seed of that early inspiration has taken root across all twenty travel industry sectors in all four corners of the world. The voices of these stalwarts of the industry have been instrumental in establishing the broad foundation for .travel and we are extremely grateful to each and every one of you for all that you have done - and continue to do - on behalf of the industry as a whole.

We are also grateful for the high degree of professionalism and competence that we have experienced while working with our authentication providers, vendors and critical infrastructure providers to establish the processes and systems.

Taken in the context of the longer view, .travel holds the potential of vitally impacting virtually every travel industry entity during a period of history in which both the travel industry and the Internet are growing at a breakneck pace. And, as we all are aware, this growth period is expected to last decades!

Since the company’s official launch on January 29th, 2006, registrations of .travel domain names continue on a steady pace. Tralliance’s pan-African initiative (Africa Virtual Heritage Management Project), its official launch in China 500 days before the Summer Olympic Games, its charitable giving to Just a Drop water charity, the registry’s relationship with the UNWTO (featuring information sites such as www.sos.travel) and the use of .travel as a primary Internet address by thousands of entities are just a few of the many high points that we have touched in a short period of time. The honor of being selected by Hospitality Sales and Marketing International (HSMAI) as one the 25 Most Extraordinary Marketing Minds of 2006 was not only a wonderful personal acknowledgement of what has been achieved, but more importantly, is the industry’s validation of the .travel initiative itself.

It has all been an extraordinary experience, however, we have reached the point where my partner and I feel we should leave the helm of Tralliance Corporation to CEO Ed Cespedes and his team.

This is not to say that we believe that everything has been accomplished. Clearly, there is still a massive amount of work to do before .travel is entrenched on a global scale and in the manner it was intended. But now it is up you, the travel and tourism industry, to lay claim to your exclusive space on the Internet. In many ways the future of the vision that we share about .travel is in your hands.

I close with a heartfelt “thank you” to those of you who believed in us early on, as well as to those who became believers over time. Thank you all for the memories!

On behalf of Cherian and I, I wish you the best of success, until we see you again!

Sincerely,
Ronald N. Andruff