TOURING BIRD

Online travel plan makes life easier for tourists

GOOGLE’S in-house start-up incubator “Area 120” has introduced a travel guide website called “Touring Bird” that lists tours, attractions and activities for tourists in popular travel destinations. “Area 120” is a workshop for the tech giant’s experimental products. So far, the site provides information about 20 cities that include New Delhi, Prague, Chicago, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and Las Vegas, among others, and they plan to increase their coverage in the coming months. “When you select a destination city, you’ll see popular attractions, suggested tours and activities along with prices, options for free, guided tours and recommendations from locals and travel bloggers,” Touring Bird website said. The app comes with a “build-your-own package” feature wherein users would be able to customise and compare filtered offerings by price and preferences, to find the best match to their plan, along with booking and cancelling provisions. “We’re a small team that’s brought together by a common passion for travel and improving the overall travel experience for others. “Most of us have a background in building travel products at Google, and we’re all deeply passionate about solving real user problems in this space,” Touring Bird added. Users would also be able to bookmark their favourite activities and recommendations – food, destinations, stays and amusements – to a list and share it with travellers. “Touring Bird” is available in English globally for both desktop and mobile users.