• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, June 25, 2014

Wego, a travel search engine, on Wednesday announced the launch of the Wego Private Marketplace to give advertisers access to Wego’s travel audiences via programmatic buying.

Rick Mulia, chief advertising and sales officer at Wego, said in a statement that the company wanted to give ad buyers a way to “access Wego’s inventory and audience in a more automated and efficient manner.”

The new marketplace is geared for medium and larger advertisers.

The Wego Private Marketplace is launching with trading desk and DSP partners from the U.S. and UK, including Xaxis, Amnet and RadiumOne, per a release. The company also has trading desks on board from APAC, Macau and the Middle East.

The marketplace will feature data from Wego’s audience engagement platform, which launched last summer. At the time, Mulia said the platform is able to create audiences that have "high travel intent."

Travel is one of the most competitive segments in programmatic environments in terms of number of advertisers. Perhaps because of this, travel advertisements are commonly among the most expensive on programmatic marketplaces.