VisitCuba.com Sells for $100k + Stock

According to a MarketWire press release on Yahoo Finance, a publicly traded company called Leisure Canada has acquired VisitCuba.com for cash and stock. Leisure Canada “acquired the domain name, website and assets related to “visitcuba.com” for total purchase consideration of $100,000 USD in cash and 84,746 Class A common shares of the Company.” The value of the shares right now is a bit over $11,000 USD.

The domain name was previously owned by a New Hampshire-based company that owns a significant number of Visit domain names. Incidentally, the company is called Visit Canada, but it does not appear to have any relationship with the buyer. The seller also owns names like VisitCanada.com, VisitMiami.com, VisitQuebec.com, VisitBoston.com, and a number of other Visit geodomain names.

Leisure Canada’s President and CEO, Robin Conners commented,  “the opportunity for growth in the tourism sector is significant and visitcuba.com fits perfectly with Leisure Canada’s current assets under development and with its broader growth strategy in Cuba.”  The company is expecting to re-launch a website by next year, and it will offer a hotel reservation engine and have Cuban tourism information.

I think it’s a pretty good sale for the former owner. I’ve sent him an email, and will post comments when I hear back.

Thanks to  George Kirikos for the tip.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

45 COMMENTS

  1. Congratulations to seller! Nice name!

    You domain bloggers missed out on big sale this year by rick

    4 million cash and stock. 60 days being closed.

    Now thays fucking awesome!

  2. Came from him. Read his twitter account

    Would have been a good blog post and speculation who the buyer is.

    4 million bucks. Fuck year! King strikes a big home run.

  3. I am sure he will announce when its officially done

    Still no one mention it.

    .com heating up. Fuck these .co hype sales.

    .com is king for a reason!

    Happy 4th!

  4. .com is king

    .co is like .info since you are comparing things

    Domaining is heating up.

    Another prediction – mark my words. Frank brokerage unit will blow any broker out of sea. 40. 50 million. I also think media options will co broker deals

    Fuck yeah. Love domaining!

  5. In speaking with a couple people who use Internet Traffic, they have been receiving more offers on the domain names than before. This is likely because of the bright orange call to action. I don’t think there are more qualified offers, but more offers nevertheless.

  6. Great sale and great purchase by buyer since they are an already established online travel business for Canadians and anyone else who types in their sites. We are currently offering our Travel2Cuba.com domain name which we registered back in 1998! With Cuba already open to travel to most every country and opening to the US at any moment Cuban Travel .com domains have become very hot commodities!

  7. Yea-sold a good cloud domain this week.

    See many dot co dropping and all those worthless dot whatever.

    Dot com is king – just stick to that and you will be on cruise control

  8. Gotta love VisitGEO.com domains!

    First Berken’s sales and now this? Nice!

    Cuba and domains and July 4 = Awesome day for me!

    Maybe the starting gun of Cuba domain sales and high valuations has just rung!!! LOTS of changes in Cuba in 2011.

    Leisure Canada is a major player in Cuba (even if they have never broken ground in Cuba) so for them to put up $100k for JUST a domain, I am impressed at their investment in this Cuba domain name.

  9. Travel2Cuba.com is a joke of a name, and VisitNYC.com is not really so good at all, either.

    I love how people with crap names always mention them in threads when something vaguely similar shows up as a big sale.

    It really makes you look retarded when you list your garbage like that. Call the trash man.

    • @ YouDon’tGetIt

      I think VisitNYC.com is good… the City uses the NYC abbreviation quite regularly since there’s New York state and New York City, so VisitNewYork.com might not be as targeted.

  10. Hey Cline

    Pay your dues and tell me what the fuck have you done in domaining little man

    Cline- go fuck yourself and your hype.

    Between you and domain lords- you guys are all talk and all full of shit

  11. Again, I ran ‘Robert Cline’ through an anagram maker a couple of weeks ago and the 4th or 5th result was…

    ‘Terrible Con’

    🙂

  12. Well these comments really went into the shitter.

    I left the forums a long time ago because of this type of behavior.

    Now people want to ruin Elliot’s blog too?

    Pretty sad.

  13. Have zero interest running elliotsblog

    He does very well and knows his stuff.

    Time to enjoy the summer. I’m out from domain blogs and forums.

    Yes,vistgeo names selling well.

  14. VisitNYC.com is a very good name. I agree.

    It could be $300000+ 3 time the value of visitCuba.com

    because NYC is a more famous city in the world than CUBA.

    Well done Rahul.

  15. Agree, VisitNYC.com is a good domain but not 300k tho.
    Especially since NY is filing for a .NYC extension, then they’d have Visit.NYC if they wanted. I’d sell it before their extension goes live, whenever that may be; 2012? 2013?

  16. I think both VisitCuba & VisitNYC are great names.
    Personally I think 100K is too low, but I guess the seller knew what he was doing.

  17. All of these wild appraisals for VisitNYC.com. How much would those appraising it so high pay for it right now? Let’s see you get in your pocket and put up your own fucking money. Sure, it would be great to sucker someone into paying a huge amount for it if you already owned it, but c’mon.

    People who visit NYC don’t call it NYC, anyways. It is a brandable name that may be decent, but it is not a great name.

    Unless you are willing to pay somewhat close to you inflated appraisal amounts, then your appraisal, and your opinion, is just horseshit and garbage.

    Get real and go into your own pockets if you think the name is so great. You guys are most crowd followers, anyways. You hear about the VisitCuba.com alleged huge sale, and now you are Googling and checking Whois for other names.

    How much would you have reached into your own pocket for last week, if offered VisitCuba.com?

    You just have no clue as to what makes a name valuable. If you did, you would offer your appraisal amounts for VisitNYC.com right now. And you would take a huge loss and soon go bankrupt if you did.

    VisitNYC.com is not worth a lot of money. If you think it is…then let’s see you are willing to pay out of your own bank account. Not what you want some sucker to pay for a no traffic name that isn’t even close to the best name for what it is intended for.

    NYC just isn’t as powerful as you cluckers think.

  18. @ Know it all

    I live in NYC (72nd and Central Park West) and I use the NYC abbreviation, just like the city gov’t uses NYC.gov. When I tell people I live in New York, they say, “in the city?” When I tell them I live in Manhattan, some seem to think Manhattan is different than the City. So, I often use NYC when asked where I live, especially when writing it.

    Thanks for your input about a topic you obviously think you know more about than you actually know.

    I don’t think it’s worth $300k or anything like that, but it’s worth alot…. Just like most names, all it takes is one buyer to get a high price. You would probably value VisitTurkey.com and VisitBerlin.com at low figures, but Berkens sold one for 6 figs and turned down a quarter million for the other.

    I get the feeling you are a failure at this business, with all of your negativity in your comments. People who are making good money rarely bitch, moan, and complain about what others are saying. They’re too busy enjoying life and/or managing their businesses.

    BTW, on Saturday, I closed a $5,000 deal on a name I bought for under $75 earlier this year on NameJet. Most people like yourself would say it’s a crap name. I happen to know more about the topic than the average know it all, made a good buy, and closed a great deal.

  19. You proved my point. You just said that YOU live in NYC. That is what you call it. Not many people on the planet without some type of connection to New York City call it NYC. It just isn’t the type of name that people will be typin in if they plan on visiting New York City.

    So, that makes the name a lot less valuable than many here think. It just doesn’t resonate outside of those with a close association to the city.

    You just don’t get it. Let’s see how much you would offer for VisitNYC.com right now? State it in the thread or stop pumping this stuff. Tell us how much you are willing to pay right now and then you will be taken seriously.

  20. @ Proved My Point

    It doesn’t matter what I would pay. It matters what an end user buyer would pay. I wouldn’t pay $20k for visitcuba.com, but someone bought it for $100k. I wouldn’t pay close to 6 figs for VisitBerlin.com but someone did. There are a number of these high value deals.

    Anyway, I don’t disagree about your comments regarding its valuation by others in this post, but I do disagree that it doesn’t have value. I would probably pay $10-15k, which means I think it’s worth somewhere between $20-45k.

    If you’re such an expert, why are you posting anonymously?

  21. I find it hard to believe that you would pay 15K for VisitNYC.com. So you are saying that if the name wasn’t mentioned in this thread and you got an email about VisitNYC.com that you would potentially pay 15K for it.

    I don’t believe you would. I don’t think you are lying, but you guys are getting a bit carried away. I didn’t say the name had zero value. The Travel2Cuba.com stupid ass name has close to zero value. The VisitNYC.com has value because someone might get suckered into buying the name, but if there is a domainer who would pay 15K for it CASH right now it would be shocking.

    The name gets zero traffic. It doesn’t really offer any type of competitive advantage. To find the value, have the owner/registrant list it here, and let’s see what the final bid is. That is the value.

    You might say you would pay 15K for it, but I don’t think the transcation would occur. Do you honeslty want people to believe that if you had to choose between 15K and VisitNYC.com, that you wouldn’t take the 15K every single time, if they were both laying right in front of you?

    100 times out of 100 I believe you would take the cash, yet you stated otherwise, and I really don’t believe if put to the test that you would choose the name over the money if you had the choice.

    The moment you get to the price that you would actually choose the name over cold-hard cash is the moment your, and others, appraisals will carry weight.

    • @ Anonymous Bitter Loser

      Honestly, I don’t care what an anonymous troll like you thinks I would pay for anything. If I knew who you were and had some sort of track record for success, I might be more interested in having an intelligent discussion with you or actually giving your opinion any weight. Every single comment you’ve ever made here from your IP has been negative and you’re an anonymous coward.

      The one thing I will say is that you don’t know enough about me or my business to say whether I would take the name or $15k.

      The biggest considerations for selling any name are:

      – Tax implications of sale
      – Price I paid
      – Do I need cash?
      – Do I think I will ever get a higher offer?
      – Do I want to develop?
      – Will I ever get a chance to develop?

      Without knowing these key factors, you have no way of knowing what I’d do. It’s like me asking, “what’s heavier, this box of bricks or this box of cotton balls?” Without knowing things like the size of the box, you can’t really make an educated guess.

      I turned down $12,500 for BikeTour.com and BikeTours.com and I also turned down $10,000 from someone else 10 days ago. Would you have done that? Maybe I am dumb, but I do pretty okay with my business of buying and selling domain names.

  22. You are the fool. Go ahead and buy VisitNYC.com and names like it for 15K and watch how fast you file bankruptcy. You know that you would NEVER pay 15K for this name.

    Of course, you would buy a name for $100 and sell it for 5K, and that can be done, and many people have done it and even turned 8 bucks into 5K rather quickly.

    But I believe that you would never buy VisitNYC.com for anywhere close to 15K, and I also don’t believe you can provide examples of where you, or anyone else in this thread, has EVER paid a similar amount for such a name, that wouldn’t really sell for all that much if listed on any of the forums.

    Keep on pumping and throwing appraisals out there that absolutely have ZERO basis to reality.

  23. VisitNYC.com still a valuable domain name…

    My Guesstimate value $100000 to $300000 depending on CRAZY BUYERS and depending on TIMING, COMPETITION, URGENCY, and of course LUCK lol

    VisitBerlin.com sold $230000 in 2011
    VisitStockholm.com sold $77000 in 2011

  24. To the hater posting – Just for the record, I’ve turned down $40,000 from a reliable party for VisitNYC.com. With 45 million tourists a year even a #15 website for NYC hotel, broadway and tour bookings and an average $900 hotel tab alone (3 x $300) could become a $100,000+ net a year business. At a conservative 5x multiple that’s a $500K valuation. That’s precisely what I plan to do.

    Every yellow cab in NYC is
    marked “NYC”, the city tourism website
    is GoNYC.com. The city used NYCVisit.com because they could not get VisitNYC.com (was owned by someone in parks preservation)

    Success is the best answer for people like you.

    • @ Rahul

      More than a hater, I think the person believes he is smarter than others and knows more than others, so he discounts the opinion of others who are likely more successful than he.

  25. All that garbage you mentioned in your above post is meaningless. I can be done with similar names. VisitNYC just doesn’t bring as much to the party that can’t be brought by someone/something else.

    It gets ZERO traffic. So that makes it a brandable name, since it isn’t a category killer type of name at all. A truly great name that is worth 100K is one that all others pale in comparison to, at least in these Visit type of names.

    You are just making up a bunch of nonsense about what the name would be worth if you build a business around it. You could build that same fucking business around other names. There is no way to get to VisitNYC.com without building a website/business around it, since it doesn’t generate any views at all by being just name. ZERO TYPE-IN TRAFFIC.

    You completely miss the whole point about what you own, and actually argue against yourself with your asinine logic talking about how many people visit New York City. So what?

    Talking about netting 100K per year on a business, and then saying that a 5 times multiple makes it worth 500K just shows you are the king of amatuer hour.

    There are major networks and big business that can’t make money on sites like your mention, and they ploy hundreds of millions into some sites, but you, sitting around in your underwear, all of a sudden are the next Bill Gates.

    You are a jackass and the way you talk is just like those idiots who pump dotmobi, .co, and every other piece of shit extension. They talk the exact same way that you do.

    Keep living in fantasyland. Someone might be stupid enough to pay you over 40K for this name, but you know as well as I do that you are trying to get over on some sucker my talking the way you do about netting 100K on something with zero traffic right now. You could come up with that bullshit analysis about any name under the sun. Very unsophisticated, and I can guarantee you that you have never taken a no traffic name and ever netted 100K with it for any business at all. If you could do that, you could do it with any name.

    I’m not saying that no traffic names can’t be worth a ton, but people who know what they are talking about will agree with me mostly on this one. They might not jump in the thread and say so, but your analysis sucks and the name is only a decent name. Not a life-changer. But keep telling yourself fantasy stories and maybe it will come true.

  26. @anon – your argument is somewhat invalidated by the fact that the main New York tourism site is GoNYC.com. You need to chill out. Elliot has made it very clear that the name has value if the right buyer is found and not specifically on what he’d part with for it.

    I’ve just closed on doNewYork.com which I’m pretty happy about. A great name for things to do in NY. I’ll be building a site for it though rather than just selling it. I’ve also got doNewYorkCity.com but wanted the shorter version.

  27. @ Calan

    The do names aren’t ones I like. There are so many that can replace “Do.” The reason I like Visit is because so many authoritative orgs use it for branding that it’s gained authority.

  28. @Elliot

    Yep, I take that point. I’m looking at these for building strong brands and products though, not to sell as domains. I do have some of the do’s listed on my sales page but that’s more just in case I get really good offers before I’ve launched sites on them. In terms of being brandable, they’re perfect for what I want.

    Have a couple of travel businesses that generate significant revenue, like Bnbbreaks.com. I’ll be building something equally strong with the do’s.

  29. “More than a hater, I think the person believes he is smarter than others and knows more than others, so he discounts the opinion of others who are likely more successful than he.”

    Mr Angry sounds remarkably like DomainingMojo who seems to have a problem with “elitist” domainers (usually MHB) making nice domain sales…and visit domains in general.

    A tad jealous perhaps 😉

  30. Anon.
    “You proved my point. You just said that YOU live in NYC. That is what you call it. Not many people on the planet without some type of connection to New York City call it NYC”

    what?

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