Budget online travel agency Sunshine.co.uk is snapping up country domain names with a view to launching a series of sites with locally written content coupled with cheap deals.

The move is expected to begin with the unveiling of Tenerife.co.uk – a major destination for UK and other European travellers – in the coming weeks after officials bought the domain in early-2009.

Other country domains were purchased recently including Tunisia.co.uk and Majorca.co.uk.

Officials says other than buying new offices for the existing Sunshine brand, purchasing country domains has been the company’s biggest value investment in recent years.

The idea, according to Sunshine co-founder Chris Clarkson, is to position the sites further back in the search and booking cycle than the existing OTA site.

The Sunshine site was aimed at providing cheap holiday deals and to position itself at the opposite end of the cycle from inspiration and content sites.

Launching country sites with similarly cheap deals but coupled with expert and locally written content is the latest approach from the founders –  and, later, sellers – of HolidayWatchdog.

Clarkson says:

We’re obviously big fans of UGC sites, but by using talented local writers who actually live in the area, the site will offer the level of information, personality and brutal honesty you don’t find in guide books written while passing through a resort. Somewhere in-between TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet.

The move is a departure from existing OTAs that would ordinarily attempt to scale an existing business through the mothership site.

The company wanted to keep re-investing in the business, providing more routes to market for Sunshine and increase sales, Clarkson says.

This option allows us to promote our brand to more customers, by increasing their exposure to sunshine.co.uk sites within the research phase of booking.

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