The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is launching an innovative new marketing communications strategy in support of the Canada Keep Exploring brand campaign.  The new initiative will result in the creation of the nationally-focused travel portal, Canada.travel, which will debut for consumers in the second quarter of ‘06.  The announcement was made at the official launch of .travel, the top level domain for the worldwide travel industry.

According to Michele McKenzie, president and CEO of the CTC, “by consolidating our Canadian tourism assets under the Canada.travel domain, the CTC, along with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA), the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) and other tourism-related organizations, provinces, cities, and communities, will provide a unified and easy-to-navigate online world of travel for consumers and businesses alike to explore Canada.”

“The Canada.travel domain name will be the foundation of the new Canadian travel portal,” says Jens Thraenhart, the CTC’s new executive director of marketing strategy and customer relationship management. “The initiative will give the CTC the necessary platform to execute a consumer-centric strategy enabling us to facilitate a value exchange between travelers to Canada and industry partners.”

An early supporter of the .travel concept, the CTC has also worked to protect the integrity of the domain for consumers by ensuring the protection of all Canadian place names and encouraged Canadian travel destinations to secure their rightful names in the .travel Internet space. “The CTC understands the intrinsic value of the industry domain and continues to be a global innovator by setting the pace for .travel’s strategic utilization,” said Ron Andruff.

“We envision Canada.travel as much more than a domain name,” adds McKenzie.  “We see it as a valuable portal to promote Brand Canada and enhance Canadian e-commerce for decades to come.”

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