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As of January 2010 Teletext will be putting its weight behind its three travel websites. The online brands currently account for almost 40% of the company's revenue with its flagship site, teletextholidays.co.uk, ranking as the ninth most-visited online travel agent last month.

TeletextHolidays.co.uk is a holiday price-comparison site with the emphasis on affordable travel and last-minute deals. Its thisistravel.co.uk site is a travel retail site competing with online travel agents such as expedia.co.uk. The brand also operates Villarenters.co.uk, where consumers can rent holiday properties.

But how will this change in strategy effect advertisers using these sites to promote their own offers or running display ads?

Sheena Darby, head of Future Travel, a division of Co-operative Travel, says most advertisers will have developed a contingency plan when it became clear the digital switch over would effect how Teletext is positioned.

Some thought will have to be put into how Teletext develops its websites to appeal better to advertisers, however. ‘As the Teletext website exists it is hard for an advertiser to make money from an uploaded offer. Offers are shown in price order so unless the offer is the cheapest it won't get much exposure,' says Darby.

When it comes to attracting traffic a strong marketing campaign will need to make the brands' aims clear to consumers. A spokesperson for Teletext says a brand campaign will launch this week to raise awareness of the Associated News- owned brand as an online travel retailer. It will run across the group's newspapers including The Daily Mail, Metro and London Lite as well as online.

Gary Jacobs, chief executive of agency Fox Kalomski, says a robust marketing strategy is central to the brand's success. ‘Consumers need a clear reason to book a holiday through Teletext. It is competing with some very sophisticated brands so they will struggle unless they can be clear what the brand stands for.'

The highest-ranking online travel agent is currently Thompson Holidays with 7.99% of the market share according to June figures from Hitwise. Expedia.co.uk follows closely behind and lastminute.com ranks third with 5.08%.

While TeletextHolidays.co.uk did well last month to make it into the top ten most visited travel agent sites, Thisistravel.co.uk ranked at number 88 with a market share of 0.16%. It is clear the brand has someway to go to align its different services and make sure its marketing message is consistent. In a market where the audience continues to be increasingly fragmented this is the only way it will be able to compete with the giants and put Teletext on the holiday destination map.