VIDEO: Booking.com on its big new focus

Booking.com's entry into the world of tours and activities has been played out in a fairly low-key way over the years.

The Booking Holdings-owned giant had quietly introduced the ability for travelers to get tickets for experiences and attractions as part of the post-booking process through customer emails.

This began in the company's home city of Amsterdam and gradually extended to other markets.

Booking Experiences, as the division is now called, has had a fairly important 2018 so far, however, with two major developments.

The lesser of the two is the service's expansion to the U.S., giving it a total of 60 cities worldwide.

This development came five months after Booking Holdings acquired FareHarbor - a move considered by many as pivotal (alongside that of TripAdvisor's purchase of Bokun) to how the market may shake out over the next few years, in terms of supplier distribution.

We spoke to FareHabor's CEO Lawrence Hester at the Arival Event 2018 in Las Vegas - now we have the interview with Ram Papatla, vice president for Booking Experiences at Booking.com.