1896 under the reign
of Emperor Franz Joseph (1830 - 1916)
was created a Ministry of Railroads
(KuK Eisenbahnministerium)
The Railways Minister
Heinrich von Witteck (1844 - 1930)
worked on Tourism Marketing
in order to increase traffic
of the train network
1917 Foundation of the
"Österreichische Verkehrsbüro"
Verkehrsbuero.com
the oldest and largest
Austrian Travel Company.
1955 Foundation of the
Austrian Tourist Board
by the Ministry of Economy
and the Austrian Wirtschaftskammer
When the national
Tourist Board of Austria
decided to create a website
the domains Austria.com
and VisitAustria.com
were already registered.
The idea came up
to use a .info domain.
.info was released
26-06-2001
.Info is
one of about 1.500 new TLD
that were created
as an alternative to .com
The Spanish Tourist board
did the same and Spain.info
was registered
6 days later,
01-08-2001
Some marketing experts beleived
.info would become a
serious alternative for the already
established .com
Time proved the contrary,
today, a quater century later,
.com is the only globally recognised TLD
a multitude of new TLDs
(Top Level Domains)
have strenghtened the predominance of .com
There are 160 million .com domains
and
not even 4 million .info domains
.info has become less popular.
Only two national tourist boards, Austria and Spain
are still using it.
Many tourist boards,
particularly those aiming for
a professional and branded online presence,
have shifted away from the generic .info domain
in favor of .com
Visit Domains
and Tourist Boards
in neighbouring countries
Austria has borders with 8 countries
Check out Tourist Information in these countries