VIDEO: Touring Bird on its vital first year in activities (and for Google)

In the space of just 12 months from its launch, Touring Bird has become an obvious part of the conversation in tours and activities.

Any other metasearch-led provider of links to online travel agencies would probably have been dismissed (at worst) or faced an uphill battle to get attention from the industry (at best).

But Touring Bird was born within Google and is the search giant's attempt to muscle in on the burgeoning sector - so it inevitably has a lot of people talking.

The app and now-desktop platform is still being hosted by the Google incubator rather than formally being a product line within the search giant's travel division.

The current number of products included within Touring Bird is now claimed to be more than 75,000. 

Currently, users are still sent to online travel agencies such as Expedia, GetYourGuide and Viator to complete a booking, rather than directly with the supplier.

Its CEO, Lax Poojary, spoke to PhocusWire during Phocuswright Europe in Amsterdam.

In the interview, he describes how the first year for the service has worked out so far, what's been easy and difficult, how the market is reacting to it and a lot more...