7 Questions for Ron Andruff, the dot travel guy

1.      Further – and more rapid – entrenchment, conversion, and use of .travel and .travel email addresses;

2.      The spread of the “home stay, experiential tourism” where travelers can fully imbibe the environment of those with whom they stay to truly encounter the places they visit; this includes “enviro-tourism”;

3.      An explosion in mega-hotels/casinos, featuring shops that showcase nothing but exclusive brand names (e.g., Sands new Venetian on Macau’s new Cotai Strip) to capture the “new wealth” from emerging middle classes from the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China).  The Venetian Macau will require 100,000 employees to operate the massive operation currently under construction.

3. Top 3 Trends in E-Marketing/CRM/Technology

1.      The shift to new, sponsored top level domains to logically expand the Internet name space (.travel is the first of many more industry/community sectors to come) which will allow future e-marketers and netizens to consolidate their multi-fold domains in different markets under one brand, as the Canadian Tourism Commission has done with www.canada.travel.  This so-called Canada model (created by this very blogger, Jens Thraenhart!) is being repeated in Egypt, China, Greece and many other nations all around the world.

2.      The further development of online newsletters presented in an electronic version of a “hard copy magazine” format employing technologies that scale in size to fill both the full screen of a PC or the vastly smaller ones on our cellular phones, yet remains easy to read.  This is not the end of the printing press, but online books just got a shot in the arm!

3.      Further incorporation of all manner of maps and interactive screens into search results that epitomizes Web 2.0, which will enable marketers to more effectively demonstrate their locations, contact data, etc. without making users click multiple times to get to such pages.  It’s all about efficiency.

4. New Developments with your Company/Organization The first steps in migrating the global travel and tourism industry into its own space are the authentication process and registration of a .travel domain name.  The immediate next benefit comes as a result of establishing one’s profile in the Directory (www.directory.travel). This is the most significant benefit of .travel, from an industry perspective.  The advertising-free Directory has been created to match highly-qualified buyers to authenticated sellers in the most unbiased, efficient, and cost-effective manner possible. The Directory is also the key to www.search.travel, the Registry’s answer to the search engines of the day, as responses to queries are presented with matching .travel entities stacked on the top of all other potential responses.  To date, both the Registry and Directory have been in the new, early development stages, so neither has been well-understood.  In 2007, both www.directory.travel and www.search.travel will be showcased in exciting ways awakening consumers to a vastly more efficient travel search tool than exists today.

5. Personal Aspirations and News In April 2007, we will demonstrate how the Directory will look in a “mature environment”, utilizing the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the country of China, providing over 10,000 Chinese destinations that users can research, select, and plan trips before, around, and after the Games.  The delivering on the promise of www.directory.travel is an aspiration I hold dear.

6. Your proudest achievement (personal and/or professional) Galvanizing the global travel and tourism industry around the .travel initiative to equally benefit both travelers and the industry alike.  Being named to HSMAI’s Top 25 Most Extraordinary Marketing Minds for 2006, for this accomplishment, was not only a personal and professional honor but, in my view, a validation of .travel as well.

7. One thing that nobody knows about you, and will surprise everybody Having been selected in the 1972 draft by Montreal Canadiens (National Hockey League), I went on to a 9-year professional hockey career (winning 5 championships, including 3 Stanley Cups, in 3 different leagues) which effectively preempted any hope of a university education.  The successes I have subsequently enjoyed in my business career, while lacking academic foundation, have come in large measure from the lessons learned as a professional athlete.  The most important lesson?  Never give up!

Thank you Ron!