Forum for sure..

I would suggest splitting it up based on geography - probably by continent. You could go as far as breaking it down to the country level but then it would probably be TOO divided to start any real conversation... every forum would seem empty and it would be hard to get off the ground. Possibly integrate an affiliate database and review system for hotels/travell/reviews...

Thanks for the input, definitely gonna keep that in mind. I haven't been able to figure out a proper way to divide up the forums though to be honest. By geography would be a little confusing I think...would members post in the forum they are planning to visit, or where they are from. Know what I mean? I need something creative yet useful so that people actually want to go on there and talk about the places they've been. Definitely going to be a challenge once I get it going...

I'd go by continent or region. Its can't get more simple than that. Once you've expanded, you can add sub forums...

This reminds me, if anyone wants to form a travel network, let me know...

I picked up travel.corank.com when corank opened up their subdomains. Haven't done anything with it yet.....

You might make it more a networking forum for the travel industry...Travel agents, cruise people, etc...I think that might be a more lucrative play...my thought is that you would be able to monetize less traffic....

I don't know, but I think that people move around a lot, as well as do stuff on the side..you could monetize by providing a venue for travel agents et al and people who run services in the destinations to create relationships...Plus...you could target the service providers (scuba, boat, scooter, etc rental...with the people in the wealthy countries who would come to visit..something like the gobig.com network or something..

Food for thought at least...

The travel/tourism market is soooo saturated - there are blogs, forums, social networks, shopping/comparison sites all over the place. Whatever you do, it has to be hot if it's going to be worth your time.

I swear I don't mean to rain on your parade, but there are fair easier things to try that wouldn't be such a long-term, labor-intensive investment. I would NOT start a travel forum if I were you. Just IMO..

I vote to sell it. I bet you could get more than reg. fee for it...

Normally I would agree, but with a domain like that, he has an immediate edge over most travel sites...

Agreed. First thing is get the domain onto a parked page so you can collect stats. What's the history of the domain name? Take advantage of that if possible. It's a great dot-com! If your going to market the domain name to sell, then start collecting stats. If they're not good, develop the site bit-by-bit raising it in the SERPs until someone bites.....

Vbulletin, adsense, and a lot of hard work and you will be alright with this one...

Appreciate the suggestions guys, definitely getting me thinking.

I was slightly surprised when I first realized that this domain was available, so I didn't hesitate to buy it. I have to put some more thought into it (maybe after the semester is over) but I will probably start filling the site with reviews and articles about good travel destinations. You know, "content." Over time, as enough content builds up, it will hopefully start bringing traffic in through the search engines. Then I would add a forum..

I know how hard it is to get a forum started from scratch so I think doing that would be a waste of time and energy (in this case)...