Deal publisher Cheapflights hopes to spark some incremental bookings by adding a Be Inspired tab to its U.S., Canadian, UK and Germany websites.
The new service is expected to go live Jan. 17.
At the same time, Cheapflights will get into mobile arena for the first time, launching mobile websites for the U.S., Canada and the UK.
And, an iPhone app is awaiting Apple's approval.
The native iPhone app will support the new Inspiration Search, Deal search and My Suitcase, a packing and planning guide which enables users to create lists about things to do before they depart, while they are in transit and at the destination.
Chris Cuddy, the CEO of Cheapflights Media, says Inspiration Search complements the company's core flight-deal search.
Essentially, the Inspiration Search is a new front end to enable consumers to get to the company's massive selection of flight offers.
Users need only to enter their departure point and the timeframe of their journey to kick off the Inspiration Search.
They can also optionally search by trip type -- beaches, city break, family, adventure, ski & snow, or "any" -- as well as filter by budget, travel region and temperature range.
Travelers then view the results and book the flights on suppliers' websites.
Cuddy believes this "clear path to booking" represents an advantage over other travel inspiration sites, which often approach travel inspiration from an editorial perspective and much earlier in the trip-planning funnel, and have a less immediate path to booking.
On the other hand, while other travel inspiration sites tend to focus on vacations, Cheapflights focuses on flight deals, raising the question of whether consumers are really looking for inspiration about which flight to choose.
For example, choosing to search by the Adventure filter produces flights to "adventure" destinations and has little to do with adventure vacations.
Cuddy says the Inspiration Search eventually may expand beyond flights. For example, some consolidators want to list their vacation packages, as well.
Cheapflights held off on a mobile offering until now, and Cuddy says the company's mobile websites and app are relatively pared down in their focus and won't ever replace the Cheapflight Internet sites.
When travelers search for deals on Cheapflights' mobile websites or iPhone app, they'll be able to book flights on supplier websites, but many of Cheapflights' partners have yet to launch mobile sites.
"I think that's a pain point for the industry," Cuddy says. "That's the bottleneck right now."