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Letter from Madame Cj Duffy to Paul Twomey

15 October 2004

Dr. Paul Twomey-

You, ICANN and more importantly, the Travel Industry are about to be .taken for a ride. by a small group of NY investors.

Since our Founder corresponded with Dr. Lynn, February 6, 2003 [Below & Attached], we have politically kept quiet. I apologize for the 23rd hour communication, but the leadership of the World Tourism Foundation truly hoped the wisdom of the ICANN Board and the travel organization leadership bodies would have prevailed. However, the respective association Chief Executive.s were made to feel and think .like entrepreneurs.. This was an understandable strategy by the investors.

What is good for the broader industry has NOT prevailed. The small group of NY investors have been subtly feeding the dynamic in motion. Our valued industry leadership organizations have been treated like puppets! The travel industry.s leadership organizations represented on the non-profit The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC) are going forward blindly, with a promise of self-interest fulfillment.

The industry leadership organizations have been .sold. that their participation in dot-travel will bring them many-many new members, and that each registration will provide an income. The income per registration offered by the NY investors will be .token. at best. The Tralliance investors have no interest in giving back to the tourism industry. This is demonstrated by the contractual cap that Tralliance will provide TTPC ($99,999 per year); found in the .travel application on the ICANN site. A poll of the TTPC members, and particularly the potential members, will disclose that there is little awareness of this.

The whole application structure is absurd, it is ill fated. It simply creates yet one more structure of opportunists, exactly what the industry doesn.t need. If you take the membership of ALL the 625 tourism leadership organizations combined (25 represented on TTPC Board), you only have less than .20%. of the tourism industry.s stakeholders. What happens to the millions of SME stakeholders who do not culturally choose to belong and pay dues to any industry association? Can they not have a .travel address?

I must respectfully ask why you would want to be associated with a movement that will further divide and fragment a very fragile business society. Will you consider the possibility that there is an alternative designed to empower and represent equally all within the tourism industry?

The Trustees of the World Tourism Foundation assumed a responsibility to protect this industry, even from itself. This industry seems to be its own worst enemy. Each time the .travel TDL is rejected it gets a bit closer to being a .good thing. for the world.s largest and most vulnerable industry.

The current .travel decision is premature. Let it Evolve. I encourage the ICANN Board to once again reject the .travel application. Only good will come out of it!

Respectfully,
Madame Cj Duffy
Chairman

World Tourism Foundation, Inc.
Personal +1 434 975-3137
cj@worldtourismfoundation.org