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tv   The Travel Show  BBC News  January 19, 2021 3:30am-4:00am GMT

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more than 70 protesters have been detained in russia as they demanded the release of the opposition leader, alexei navalny. he was arrested just hours after he returned to moscow for the first time since being poisoned last year. he had called for demonstrations against president putin's government. joe biden�*s administration has said the united states will maintain covid travel restrictions which have banned visitors from the uk, most of europe, and brazil. earlier, mr trump, the outgoing president, had ordered the measures lifted from next week. the rate of coronavirus infection is beginning to fall in the united kingdom. in the past 2a hours there have been fewer than 40,000 new cases — the first time that has happened this year. but hospitals are still battling against rising admissions and a shortage of critical care beds.
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the inquiry into the manchester arena terror attack in 2017 which killed 22 people resumed on monday, this time focusing on the response of the emergency services. a new expert report has raised questions about whether the youngest victim, saffie roussos, could have survived if medics had responded differently. a member of the public, paul reid, who tried to help the eight—year—old as she lay injured, has been speaking to our north of england correspondentjudith moritz. i saw a little girl lying there. i bent down to her, she was still conscious. i asked her her name and i thought she said sophie. her name was saffie. eight years old, and lying on the floor of manchester arena after the bomb went off. the first person to reach her was poster seller paul reid. and shejust started... she wasn't upset, she just got a little bit upset. she asked me for her mum and i said not to worry, we were going to find
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her in a minute. and do you remember anybody trying to bring bandages or anything to try to stop the blood? there was nobody, there was no bandages. paul has been commended for helping to carry saffie out and get her into an ambulance quickly. experts appointed by the manchester arena inquiry say her injuries were unsurvivable, but a different team commissioned by the roussos family has said she might have survived if she had received better medical treatment. the little girl died more than an hour after the attack after losing a critical amount of blood. her parents have only recently learned the expert opinion that she didn't get the help she needed. there was a member of the public with her. i can't expect them to tourniquet her, splint her legs and so on. but the medically trained people that were with her didn't apply basic first aid to give saffie a chance. paul reid says he's still haunted by the memories of that night. just a sense of failure. you know saffie's parents have said they wouldn't expect
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a member of the public to have had that training, known what to do. i'm first aid trained, but the most i'd done was put a plaster on. i mean, to step on that foyer, some of them people, it was carnage. the manchester arena inquiry will now examine the emergency response to the attack. the inquiry has heard it's important to acknowledge the enormous pressure which those who responded that night came under. judith moritz, bbc news, manchester. now on bbc news — the travel show. this week on the travel show, what's in store for the year ahead? i think a phrase a lot of us can expect to hear in 2021 is "documents, please. " the world's tallest mountain. i really hope that the people who want to go and climb mount everest really understand the significance of this mountain, the sacredness of this mountain.
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i thought i'd seen everything! and a detox that is not for the squeamish. wow, the visual of it is the most shocking part. hello and welcome to the show. after a dramatic year, i am here in turkey to start my 2021 off on a more personal note with some strange alternative therapies. and if you've not heard of mad honey, stay tuned for that. but first, after a tumultuous yearfor travel, 2021 has got off to a gloomy start in the uk, with pretty much
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the entire country being back in lockdown. but with a vaccine just starting to be rolled out, can we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and start to build some idea of what the year ahead might look like for those who are desperate to travel? rajan has been finding out. last year, as we all stayed home and talked to our computers, much of the outside world fell eerily quiet. the latest data from the world tourism 0rganisation says that between january and october 2020, global destinations welcomed 900 million fewer international tourists than in the same period the year before. and they believe that last year as a whole will have set tourism levels back to that of three decades ago. and while that means that we have missed out on tourist holidays, for the travel industry, it spells a loss of an estimated us$i trillion plus. that is cash that could have
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gone to the costs and wages of airlines, hotels, local taxes, guides — you name it. it all means that 2021 is going to start like no other year. and an awful lot is riding on it. we're going to be looking at a slow and possibly nervous start. the effects of this pandemic is people will appreciate how important travel is to them and the world they live in. cities will be busy again after the pandemic. - so it will turn a whole new generation of people into global nomads. we will probably see prices go up. 2021 is going to be - a bumpy year for travel. and now is the time we usually all start making those holiday plans for the year. but the way we choose to book my change. our research finds that people are increasingly turning to travel agents to book their future holidays. i think they really value the
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professionalism and expertise. the higher end will be promoting a more secure and safe environment, with larger, expensive rooms, and everything has been cleaned immaculately well and really pushing that high end, save as back. then you will have these great offers that are super cheap. and don't forget the availability of vaccine should be a game—changer. we are rolling out the biggest vaccination programme in our history. the governments who get together and vaccinate the population are going to see a short—term boost. we are going to find ways to boost the vaccinations. crucially, we don't know if the vaccine prevents you from transmitting the disease. that is going to be really crucial for holidays, because even if you have been vaccinated and you can still transmit the disease, countries are not going to want to let you in. but for travellers it is going to be an important step towards booking
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with confidence. when the vaccine news for the pfizer vaccine came out in december, we saw a 37% increase in searches and bookings. 0nce travel does open up again, the trips we actually take might also change. people haven't taken all their holiday allowance in 2020, and ultimately people are looking to use that in new and different ways. activity holidays, i think, will benefit very much from the collective experience that people have been through. high demand, more passengers seeking to go to fewer places, i because airlines will not have as many aircraft to fly - to traditional places. all these places from barcelona to dubrovnik to venice that are typically swarmed with tourists are going to say "come now, while there is nobody here" and, as the fears start to drop, people swarm back in. we will be encouraged to see other places in those countries, go to other beaches, other national
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parks, other cities. i think that is fantastic. it spreads the wealth of tourism. the covid—19impacts- is many people understand better sustainable tourism. previously people might have thought about sustainable - tourism, and thought- about the impact of aviation. now they are aware that is about communities, l conservation, and, - within a holiday, it is not just aviation, it's - accommodation, tourism activities, food _ procurement, supply chains. and when we do travellers year, what will it be like? i think a phrase lots of us can expect to hear in 2021 is "documents, please. " that may be your vaccination certificate, or it may be your proof of a test. using biometrics or facial or voice recognition to get you checked, get you on board planes, not touching anybody and not handing documents over, and then you can get into your hotel using biometrics as well. i think that is the one piece
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of technology that is going to speed up things, reduce congestion, and make people feel safer. of course, there is one man who has been through this with us every step of the way. simon, hello. in terms of travel, when it does get going in 2021, what do you foresee? i am braced to pay quite a lot more. while there are certainly some bargains around — i am just looking at early march, a 1—way ticket to athens, £8, it's ridiculous — but generally, for these sorts of flights and holidays you were getting a couple of years ago, i would be prepared to pay 25% or 50% more. and of course, we have now fully left the european union, the brexit transition phase is over, so lots of restrictions, particularly to go with passport validity. are there any reason to be cheerful about 2021, simon?
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so many reasons to be cheerful. in northern ireland, the game of thrones studio tour is opening up. and perhaps the biggest cultural event of the 20205, the opening of the new egyptian museum outside of cairo, that will be momentous. i can't wait to be there. neither can i. let's hope it will happen soon. thank you, simon. stick around, because we have some great stuff coming up next. the world's tallest mountain. ever since i was a kid, i dreamt of climbing mount everest. look at that! and the honey with a sting in its tail. i've got my mad honey. delicious! next this week, a visit to
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the world's tallest mountain. mount everest was closed for much of 2020 because of the pandemic. but could the lockdown have been a blessing disguise for this ultimate adventure destination? the sherpas are an ethnic group from north—eastern nepal. ever since i was a kid, i dreamt of climbing mount everest. i have been on 13 mount everest expeditions. mount everest is where our goddess miyolangsangma resides. it is a sacred mountain. for me, it is a magical place. i have enormous reverence and respect for mount everest. i have seen how beautiful and magic it can be. but i've also seen the tragedy, the death they can result from being on mount everest. in the 19505, there were only like four or five western
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tourists who came into the everest region. by 2019, we have thousands, more than 35,000 tourists, who came to the everest region. to put that in perspective, this is a region with about 7000 people, so it is five times the population that actually lives there. in 2019, nearly 900 people reached the mountain's summit. but bad weather and a short winter to reach the peak made it one of the deadliest seasons on record, with at least 11 casualties. some of the slower climbers held up those behind them, so the slowest person dictated the pace. fortunately, because our team's skill level was high enough, we could climb around people who were stuck. so we stayed on schedule, and got to the top, and came back down. i think something was lost there. it became all about who's going to get there, how fast, and what am i going to get out of that experience? and i suspect that it is only
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going to get worse in the future, unless there is an intervention. although the nepalese government collected £8,000 fee from foreign mountaineers, until now, there has been little regulation on tour operators or climber skill level. in the last 15 years, the peak has become more accessible to climbers with a lower skill set, or less experience, because companies are offering trips to everest and not requiring a certain level of mountaineering experience and skill tojoin. and with more mountaineers, another problem has emerged. some have started calling mount everest the world's highest garbage dump.
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after the crowded 2019 season, officials embarked on a massive cleaning expedition, bringing over 10,000 kilos of garbage down from the mountain. but there's still more to be done.
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but nepal is not a wealthy country, so balancing environmental issues with everest�*s economic impact can be difficult. while the government wants to increase the amount of people visiting each year, there are plans to put new rules on who is allowed to summit the world's highest peak.
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i think requiring potential everest climbers to have previously climbed 6000 metre peaks is a great idea and also the guiding companies i think should be held to some standard. responsibility lies on the individual who is choosing to go to everest to ensure that they are properly prepared. i feel that the perception of the mountain being so crowded is false. the mountain does not feel like that at all — it's vast, it's open. if anyone is dreaming of climbing everest, i think they should do it. it is notjust a rich person's sport. they should start climbing peaks closer to home and work their way up, claiming bigger and bigger mountains with harder terrain, and eventually find their way to the top of the world. the sherpas in the everest region are ready for tourists to come. i really hope that the people who want to go and climb mount everest really understand
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the significance of this mountain, the sacredness of this mountain. and finally this week, i'm in turkey, which has mostly remained open to tourists throughout coronavirus crisis. travel is big business here, bringing in around $35 billion in 2019 — a figure that took a big dent last year. but pre—pandemic, there was a particular kind of tourism on the rise. and that is medical tourism — foreigners coming here for treatment, lured by the promise of good quality healthcare at an affordable price. procedures range from the cosmetic to the life—saving, from hair replacement to cancer treatment. in 2019, the turkish government said 660,000 people came here for medical reasons — 20% more than the previous year. but i'm not here for surgery.
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i'm here to de—stress and unwind after a bumpy 2020 and start the new year in the right frame of mind. so i'm looking for some alternative therapies that have their roots deep in turkish tradition. myjourney begins in rize province, the region famous for its tea. do we zip up? but today, i'm going to try something just a little bit more potent. oh, look at that! chuckles. wow! it's so heavy! look at this! this is deli bal, otherwise known as mad honey. imitates a musical flourish. tell me, what makes this honey different than other honey?
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its use has been traced back to ancient times. here, it is used as a local remedy for hypertension and other conditions. but it has to be taken in small amounts. too much can drop your blood pressure to dangerous levels and even cause hallucinations. we are going to do this the safe way and the local way. if i'm not careful, i could be among the dozens of people admitted to hospital each year with mad honey poisoning. 0ne teaspoon. right on top. 0oh, i'm a bit anxious! chuckles.
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0k. and down the hatch. you should always exercise caution around this stuff in order to stay safe. it tastes great! there's a taste... mmm — what is that? more floral than honey. it's really tasty. thankfully, i'm not having a bad reaction — well, at least not yet. but if the next segment is a bit wonky, you know why. chuckles. but we're fine. thanks so much. that was great. over 800 miles away in istanbul, you might stumble across our next therapy at a local bazaar. i thought i'd seen everything. it's called hirudothera py. medicinal leeches are placed on a patient�*s body to purify the blood.
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the treatment has been around since ancient egypt and was particularly popular in europe in the early 19th century before it was brought to turkey. argh! chuckles. well, so right before they bite, you can see their nose flatten down. you don't feel anything, do you? because they have anaesthetic — a natural anaesthetic. yes, yes. just the visual of it is the most shocking part. 0h, there's a little — there's a little twinge, a little, like, tickle — a little itch. we saw leeches at the market earlier. yes. these leeches are very harmful because maybe harmful micro... bacterias, yes. ..virus. so these ones all came from a farm? leeches farm. where you... yes, we have a leech farm. so there is a distinction between the legitimate uses
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of hirudotherapy for medicine — which is to stop blood clotting, to clean wounds — and from bloodletting. traditionally, bloodletting was thought to cure illness by balancing the humours, but it has long been discredited by doctors. and so what are some of the things people would come to you for? generally heart disease, metabolic chronic disease, some contraction of muscles. like spasms or something? for a healthy adult like myself, there is probably not much this gruesome therapy can do for me. if i'm going to shake off the stress of 2020, i am going to have to try something just a little bit more soothing. bowls ring melodiously. ding!
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sound is a very powerful modality because it brings all of the attention to something which is external. it somehow brings you into a moment, that you actually are experiencing focus. ding! sound healing is deeply rooted in turkish culture because during the ottoman time, they kind of combined the tradition from chinese and indian with the ancient turkic understanding which was deeply rooted in the shamanism culture, and they brought everything together and they actually practised it in the hospital. handpan notes ring out. at one historic hospital at edirne, music and natural sound was used to cure patients. today, sound therapy is practised in intense one—on—one sessions or as a group sound shower.
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and whenever you're ready, you can slowly open your eyes. hand bells chime. i don't know what it is about those singing bowls but you feel it in your body. and of all the therapies we've done, i think i'll take a little bit more of this one, if you don't mind. just give me five more minutes. let me lay here. there we go. ding! mike sighs contentedly. oh! well, after all that, i'm feeling very relaxed so i might go explore the city just a little bit more but unfortunately, that will mark the end of our adventures this week. but coming up next week — carmen is here with a look back at some of our favourite adventures from southeast asia. from henry's trip on cambodia's wireless railway... this is so great!
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..to rajan�*s stunning journey through myanmar and my exploration of manila, the back of a jeepney. if you want to tell the driver to stop, you tap on the roof. so that's go? no, that's stop! that's stop? so make sure not to miss it. remember, you canjoin us on social media by following us on all of the regular social platforms. but from me, mike corey, and the rest of the travel show team here in istanbul, it is goodbye. hello there. storm christoph has been named by the met office and it will bring a double whammy of severe weather and disruption in the next few days. first up is the rain and flooding. this is rain accumulating
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in the next three days, and the bright colours show where we are expecting the heaviest of the rain. it will be very wet in the welsh hills, but the main concern is the amount of rain expected in the southern pennines and northern peak district. we have an amber rain warning here that has been extended into the midlands, and parts of eastern england as well. river levels already very high, and the ground is very wet as well. we've got rain developing at the moment across much of england and wales. keeping it mild as the wind picks up. further north, though, it's much colder. frost and some icy patches in northern scotland. but the rain is still around during tuesday, and it will rain all day, pretty much, across northern england and northern ireland. further south across england and wales, after the overnight rain it should be drier for a while but we will see more rain coming in, especially across wales and the south west. some of that rain pushing into southern scotland bringing the threat of sleet and snow in the southern uplands. it is certainly colder across scotland with a few showers and some sunshine in the north. much milderfor much of england and wales.
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11 or 12 degrees with some wind and, of course, some rain. that rain continues, actually, on tuesday evening, tuesday night and into wednesday as well. particularly across england and wales. it should dry off a bit across northern ireland. more wet weather coming into some southern and south eastern parts of scotland threatening some more snow over the high ground as well. again, it's quite cold across scotland and northern ireland, much milderfor england and wales with more rain on the way. that rain coming from storm christoph, that's the centre of the storm there. it is actually going to strengthen during wednesday night. the winds are really going to pick up as it moves northwards into the colder air there will be more snow falling overnight and into thursday morning. especially in scotland, could be a0 cm of snow and perhaps as much as that over the high ground, some snow over other hills of scotland and the northern pennines. drier further south, but it will be colder, and it will feel colder in the wind as well. so two main areas of concern, really, the wet weather in the next few days bringing flooding. especially across parts of northern england, the midlands and eastern england. and then as if that was not enough we've got this
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increasing risk of snow, particularly in scotland with some blizzards and drifting of the snow in the hills.
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this is bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: the covid pandemic leaves some uk hospitals at breaking point. we have a special report from london where staff are stretched to the limit. i wasn't convinced we were going to have a second wave at all, and the huge numbers that havejust, absolutely slammed us, it's just... i never thought it would be possible. the world health organization warns we're on the brink of a �*catastrophic moral failure�* as poorer countries are forced to wait for covid—19 vaccines. supporters of the jailed russian activist alexei navalny have been arrested after he urged people to protest against president putin's government the outgoing us president orders covid travel bans to be lifted, only for the president—elect to say his new administration will maintain the restrictions.

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