The site, which provides live pricing and availability information, enables users to compare holidays from 15 tour operators, including Thomas Cook, Thomson and Airtours; it plans to add First Choice, Virgin Holidays and Kuoni to its selection.
Products can be compared by flying time, destination temperature and price supplements. Users can also compare prices offered by travel agents with those from the operators. Retailers can be compared by description, location and speciality, and users can book via independent or personal home-based travel agents as well as the tour operators.
The site, developed by Zolv, offers TripAdvisor user reviews, weather information and Google Maps. It also carries tour-operators' brochures and video footage of hotels and resorts.
The service plans to roll out flight- and hotel-only options, and introduce dynamic packaging including flight and hotel bundles.
The launch is being backed by a digital promotional drive including email marketing.
Travel.co.uk founder and managing director Ray Mason is a former managing director of Teletext Holidays Online and head of Virgin Holidays' ecommerce division. Former Virgin Holidays marketer Vicky Smith is the site's marketing manager.
Price-comparison sites have boosted their marketing efforts in the face of the slowdown in consumer spending. Comparethemarket.com has raised its adspend to £30m this year, while Travelsupermarket.com has boosted its spend from £11m to £16m to increase brand awareness.
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