from the east and the southeast, which could stay quite misty, grey and cool, otherwise mild 10—12 celsius for many. finding settled for this upcoming week, variable cloud, bit of sunshine around, the nights will continue to be chilly, and a sign of it turning colderfor all by the end of the week. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... last post plays tributes are paid to captain sir tom moore at his funeral — family members say his spirit will live on. the chancellor plans new measures to help people buy their own homes as he prepares his budget for next week. anas sarwar has been announced as the new scottish labour leader. he takes charge of the party ahead

of the scottish parliament election on the 6th of may. ministers in england launch a campaign to reassure parents it's safe for children to return to the classroom. now on bbc news — global questions. covid—19 slammed the brakes on international tourism, but with vaccines now being rolled out around the world, there's optimism that international travel may soon take—off again. hello and welcome to global questions with me, zeinab badawi. covid—19 lockdowns have wreaked havoc on our economies, and one area that's been knocked sideways is the travel and tourism industry. one in ten people around the world work in the sector, and it accounts for $9 trillion of global gdp. has the travel industry been transformed for ever? and could some of the changes actually be good

for us and the planet? that's global questions: travel in a post—covid world. well, to bring you this edition of global questions, our two panellists and our questioners join us live via video link. let me tell you who's in the hot seat this week giving the answers. paul theroux is an internationally—acclaimed american author and explorer who's been described as the world's most perceptive travel writer. he has a new novel set in hawaii called under the wave at waimea out in april. and gloria guevara is ceo and president of the world travel

and tourism council, which represents the travel and tourism private sector globally, so she's deeply involved in all the current negotiations for the future of international travel. previously, gloria was minister of tourism in her native mexico and is credited with helping make that country a tourist hotspot. welcome to you both, gloria and paul, and also to my questioners, whojoin us from all over the world, and, of course, to you wherever you are watching this. and, remember, you too can join the conversation — it's #bbcglobalquestions. right, let's go to tanzania in east africa for our first question, and it's one we received on social media from francis mcallar, who's a tour guide there. travel restrictions have caused job losses, family break—ups, bankruptcy, homelessness and most families i know in the tourism industry in tanzania are not able to put food on the table. "can we replace quarantine restrictions with rapid testing to boost economies that rely

on tourism like in tanzania?" gloria guevara, what's your take on this? thank you for the question, and thank you for and having me today. you're absolutely right — we need to make the invisible visible and testing is the best way to replace quarantine and allow the mobility and allow the travellers to be back in the countries. that will provide the opportunity to have travellers in tanzania that will share the income from developed nations to developing nations, such as tanzania, and provide food on the table and also help to recover the jobs and livelihoods that have been impacted. so, we are in favour of testing so that we can avoid exporting the virus and only to those who have tested positive should be in quarantines, and not the entire country. gloria, just very quickly, it sounds like you're kind of suggesting that some countries have gone a bit over the top when it comes to quarantine restrictions, locking people up in hotel rooms

and all the rest of it? yes, there are some countries... currently, the assessment is based on countries and not an individual, which we disagree. we believe that the assessment has to be based on individuals. individuals have covid, not entire countries. we cannot assume that entire population is infected. therefore, we need to do testing and only isolate the people infected, and for that, you need to do testing before departure, perhaps on arrival and identify the people infected. thank you. 0k, thank you. paul, about 330 million people worldwide work in some way in the travel and tourism sector. they've really taken a terrible hit on their livelihoods. yes, that's true, zeinab. but in tanzania — and francis may or may not know that — has 1.3 million tourists. i'm in hawaii, now — this is a sunny morning in hawaii. we have 10 million tourists. the question is, can people put food on the table?

if tourism is 17% of tanzania's gdp, then what about the other 83%? they are putting food on the table, i presume. the economy is 83%. in hawaii, it's 21% of the economy. we have 77% is other than tourism. it's a very, very painful question about putting food on the table, but there are things beyond tourism. so, i mean, the pain that people suffer from tourism isn't only related to that industry, there's a lot of other businesses that can help people put food on the table. i agree with gloria about testing and i think she covered that very well, but tourism isn't the only factor in tanzania. as a matter of fact, tourism, relatively speaking, is a small area of tanzania's economy.

all right, let's go to sweden to yvette la rsson. yvette, what do you want to ask gloria and paul? so, i worry that the world we live in will become an even more - divided place to be, _ where rich countries will be able to carry out their vaccinationl programmes more efficiently than poorer countries, - and thereby create a divide where we will be able to travel. so, my question is, which possible scenarios do you see _ for the future of travel? all right, let me come to you, paul, and let me just perhaps abbreviate your question if you don't mind me asking you, yvette, because there's been a lot of talk about vaccine passports and, obviously, that's going to favour those countries who have had the massive vaccination programmes. so, do you like the idea of vaccine passports, and do you think it is discriminatory, within countries and between countries? paul?

no, it's not discriminatory. yvette asks a very interesting question, which is, "what about scenarios for the future of travel?" the future of travel will be very much like the past of travel. 58 years ago, i went to africa, and i had this, i had to carry this. this is the who passport with diphtheria shots and yellow fever shots and tb and so forth. i was vaccinated two weeks ago, and i have this. this is the proof of my vaccination. so, it's not discriminatory. in the past, in 1963, when i first went to africa, i had to show that i had been vaccinated, but vaccinated against tb, sleeping sickness, yellow fever and whatnot. so, the future of travel will be very much like the past of travel. yeah, but, paul, can ijust interrupt very quickly, because we've had the head of the world's largest vaccine manufacturer say that poorer

countries won't be vaccinated until the end of 2024 at the earliest. so we here in the uk can start travelling sometime this year, but others have to wait at the back of the queue. that is correct. ok, gloria, you're saying that is correct. let's come to you — do you like the idea of vaccine passports? i disagree totally and i'm very aligned with what yvette is concerned, because vaccination as a requirement for travel drives the wrong behaviour and discrimination, and the reason is because supply is limited. paul was very fortunate to be vaccinated. however, that is not happening around the world. we need to concentrate the vaccination on the vulnerable groups. yes, the vaccination has been very successful in the uk, vaccinating the vulnerable groups in the northern hemisphere, but there are a lot of developing countries that don't even have a calendar when they will be receiving the vaccination.

and at the same time, when we think about 7 billion people around the world, it's going to take a while to vaccinate everyone. so, we don't believe that vaccination should be a requirement for travelling, however we believe testing is the solution to resuming international mobility. even the experts are saying today that even if you have been vaccinating they cannot prove currently, that is what they are saying, that you cannot spread the virus, which is even worse. so we need to still include testing and make sure we don't drive discrimination amongst countries. all right. yvette. may i say one thing? sorry, go on, paul. this is a pandemic. you can't push this fast. i realise that everyone is suffering, that business is bad, airlines, restaurants, hotels and the tourism industry is suffering. but if you push it too hard, it will only get worse. this is a pandemic of global proportions, and in the way that smallpox was in the past.

all right, yvette larsson, what do you think about what paul and gloria have said? you have got two different opinions there. yeah, i'mjust thinking, because i live in a veryl high—tech country, sweden, i and we have an infrastructure, we could digitalise... you were talking about a digital passport, and that made me i think also about how easy iti would be for us to have that infrastructure, how easy it would be for us to implement that. _ that's why i also started - to think about the question. sounds like you're more swayed by what gloria was saying, then. yes. - all right. ok, that's one for you, gloria. sorry, paul. ok, let's go to our next question, ahmed antarfrom dubai. and you actually work for an airline in dubai. your question, please. with my five years' experience in emirates airline, _ i can see that since the start. of this pandemic, air travel isn't going to be the same as before.

will this lead us to a point - where only the wealthy people are able to travel? and will the aviation industry be left severely damaged? . all right. let me come to you then, gloria. i mean, two questions. will we go back to the days when only the rich could afford to travel? and what effect is this going to have on the aviation industry? that is a great question, ahmed, because the supply has been impacted. we have less flights, less planes, less airlines due to the pandemic, and unfortunately, the support from governments have been different. in europe, for instance, some governments have been supporting the airlines in the us, as well. but we have some other regions of the world where the airlines are closing and those employees have been furloughed or let go. so i kind of agree with your concern, but at the same time, i'm hoping for the recovery that we will see some capacity to come back. and, at the same time, that you see more seats available, we will see also better pricing.

and we don't go back to where we were in the �*80s, where flying was very expensive. where flying was very expensive and just for a few. we believe that we will have more seats, not as we had in 2019, perhaps when we had more than four billion people travelling around the world. but we would have a lot of connectivity that would allow people to resume mobility and travel again. paul, what do you say to ahmed? i agree that ahmed's concern is real. yes. does he think the aviation industry will be left severely damaged? i think it will be severely damaged. that travel increased is because airfares were low. in the 1970s, the jumbo jet allowed many,

many more people to travel. so the the great difference between the before and after was cheap air fares or bigger planes. and i think that airlines will go out of business. and, as a matter of fact, wealthy people have always been the travelers who spend money. so, realistically, in the short term, anyway, it will be the privileged, the vaccinated, and the wealthy who get the flights. and the airlines that have support will survive. ahmed, not much comfort for you there in those answers. what do you think? i'm afraid that i totally. agree with paul about it. airlines will suffer, - will suffer, for a while. i believe the airline - will come stronger again within, like, three to four... three to five years' from now, at least. all right. let's go to india, your question, please. due to the pandemic tourism has

| reduced in significant numbers, i but this has also had an effect on our planet _ skies have been less polluted, rivers are as clear as ever, - l and tourist destinations are not i crowded any more, hence reducing the carbon footprint. now, since climate change is an alarming problem - at the moment, how do you think the travel industry can _ promote sustainable - tourism for the pandemic? ——promote sustainable - tourism post the pandemic? let's go to you, paul. what's your answer? sustainable tourism ? i think it's very interesting. i'll tell you, i'm in hawaii and we had last year, or before the pandemic, ten million tourists. now, ten million is more than india. you have fewer tourists travelling to india than we have in hawaii. and the damage to our ecosystem is considerable. gloria is very wise about how the airline industry might possibly recover, but it's the airline industry, it's travel, that has driven the pandemic. it's because of global travel and people travelling everywhere

that the pandemic, that the virus, is in the four corners of the earth, the success of the travel industry means the success of the virus. so, what i noticed in hawaii is the beaches are cleaner. there are fewer people, the roads are emptier and life is better. and i think that in delhi i was told that you have cleaner air, you have less pollution, less of a carbon footprint because of the pandemic. how we can continue in this way is by examining the numbers. the numbers of tourists have increased beyond the sustainability of the places that people are travelling to. so, in a way, many places have reached a critical mass in tourism. and now we're able to gauge, just because of the pandemic, we can gauge the effect of tourism on the ecosystem.

and now, i mean, it's a cruel lesson, that people are dying and people have it... 0k, gloria, i know as minister tourism in mexico, when you had that role that you did a lot on sustainable tourism. so, can the travel industry promote this, post—pandemic? absolutely, it can. the sustainability agenda has been accelerated. this is a priority. and you have to understand — there is no tourism if we don't have natural resources. so, it is for the best of our interests to protect the natural resources. now, it needs to be sustainable tourism, it needs to be responsible from the traveller. and i believe tourism is part of the solution. i have seen that first—hand in my own country, where we had communities cutting trees to sell the wood. and once we implemented a policy so that they were able to live from sustainable tourism, they were the first ones to protect, for instance, the case of the monarch butterfly, the ecosystem, because they were living from tourism. it is the same situation in tanzania, in africa and the national parks,

where we have seen illegal increasing, where we have seen illegalfishing increasing because of the lack of the funds from sustainable tourism. so, i believe tourism is part of the solution. we need to be included in the conversations, in the policy—making, and the travellers have a very important role here to play, necause not only the climate is the environment, but also the social impact, the positive social impact, that tourism provides. and i totally disagree with paul — i'm sorry — about the pandemic is caused because of travel, no. the pandemic was spread because of the lack of implementation of protocols. there were countries that they didn't respect the protocols. they were not able to cut the people infected. and that's why you have different results in different countries. all right. it doesn't look like he's going to shift on that one. but, anyway, thank you very much. you've heard what the panelists say — quick response from you? i totally agree, because i live in bangalore, india, - that is the silicon valley of india, and i can totally relate _ with skies being more i

clearer and less polluted and no more pollution. thank you very much indeed. let's go to new zealand and to chandrika ghosh. chandrika, fire away, please. thank you, zainab. my question is, in a post—covid world where travel might be limited, we could be deprived of the unique cultural experiences we encounter only through travel, which makes us more tolerant and understanding of other societies and cultures. what kind of impact do you think this will have on our world? so, paul, you've written plenty of stuff about just how travelling, slow tourism, seeing real communities, you know, upfront has enriched your life. so, are we going to lose that now? we lost it, a while back. i mean, we lost it with the internet. when i first started to travel, i didn't have a cell phone, i didn't have a computer, i didn't have a telephone. i was in malawi,

in central africa. i was teaching in a school. i wasn't travelling, but i was far away. so, the blow has been softened. the culture shock has been softened by the ability of any traveller to call his or her mother or her mother. you can call home and you could talk to people or you could look on the internet. so, the cultural enrichment that we see today is not only travel, but it's also the connection that people have with the phone, with the internet and with the computer that people never leave home entirely. they're always connected to home. i was disconnected. the era of being totally disconnected in a country, not able to phone home is gone. so the enrichment, i think it's always been somewhat mixed... and i think you can't lament it. that's just modernisation has

allowed people to draw on their experience. gloria, chandrika's question also talked about how being... you know, travelling, being exposed to different cultures makes you more tolerant and understanding people of different backgrounds and ethnicities and so on. do you think we're in danger of losing that now because of less travel after the pandemic? i totally agree with chandrika, 100%, because travelling brings understanding and the more that we understand, then it creates empathy. and empathy, that's what's needed in the world, right? the more empathy that you have because you position yourself in the shoes of others, you have a better understanding. the more that you travel and educated, the more sensitive that you are. and the internet doesn't give you that and a book doesn't give you that until you have a chance to experience and live that 100%. so, i also agree with paul that

you have to experience that, but that empathy is very much needed right now around the world, especially because you have a lot of racism, you have a lot of nationalism and a lot ofjust looking inside and without understanding and reaching out to each other. chandrika, a quick riposte from you? thanks, zeinab, and i think nothing replaces the real experience that people spoke about. and i do think that the current world scenario is especially going to impact on young children who are growing up in this post—pandemic world from an understanding of societies and cultures in the absence of travel opportunities. as adults, we have memories from the past to go on, unlike young children who may have lost the opportunity to gain these experiences during some of their crucial formative years. all right, thanks very much. you bring up the issue of young people and i know that todd carr in albuquerque, new mexico, united states, you've got a question related to young people. yes. thank you for the opportunity. i'm curious to know how— the panellists believe the pandemic has affected and will continue . to affect opportunities for young people to study and work abroad.

gloria? there's a great question, todd, and i think that you're from a generation that is very fortunate to have the opportunities to work and to study abroad. i think right now we are in a pause, and because of the pandemic, and it might effect in the short term, but the medium and long term, i think that those opportunities will be resumed and probably even better. you're going to see more and more people wanting to travel and visit. i can tell you from my own children, my daughter wants to do a gap year in asia, go to korea, for instance, and she's looking forward to studying in other countries as well. so, and that's because of the pandemic. so, i would say also that people now, that after this pause, they have a better appreciation and probably are going to explore more opportunities. so for now, yes, it has been impacted, but it's going to get betterfor sure. paul, do you agree with that? yes, i agree. but todd's in albuquerque. he could get in his car and be

in mexico in one day. less than a day, less than a day. he could get to the border and you could cross and find out... there's a huge, rich culture right on your doorstep. the word "abroad" in your question is interesting. travel isn't only abroad. todd could also get in his car and drive to arkansas. he could drive to mississippi and alabama. and when i travelled there some years ago in the deep south, i realised i was in a different country. so travel is not only the experience of another language, it might be your own language or it might be next something next door. so, the idea of studying and learning, which for the young people, a young person from albuquerque, you could go to montana, could go to canada, could go to mexico, could go to florida, could go to mississippi...

alabama, to me, was a completely alien culture. so, you don't have to think about turkey, china, india. you could think of a place nearer home that's just as exotic. it just... it doesn't occur to people. todd. i think these are really interesting points. - i work in international education, which has been decimated - by the travel restrictions, i and we're looking forward to an uptick in students going abroad. most definitely. we're just waiting to see when that time frame will occur. - all right. and just one quick final question from me to both of you — will travel ever be the same again in a post—covid world? very quickly, paul theroux. in the long term, yes. in the short term, i would say the next, i would say... five years, it will undergo a kind of transformation and it will get back to somewhere the way it was,

but where we're in the middle of it now, we need to solve the problem and people have to stop becoming infected. gloria, travel in post—covid world, will it be the same? will it be better? i don't think that it will be the same, we're not going backwards, we're not going to how it was in 2019, i think we're going forward and it's going to be better it's going to be more digital because the digital agenda was accelerated, it's going to be more sustainable because the sustainability agenda has been accelerated. you will see some protocols in place and your experiences after covid and you will see as seamless more, better experience more, i would say safer after covid. so, we're not going back. i think we're going forward. all right. gloria guevara and paul theroux, my two panelists, thank you very much indeed. and my questioners, who'vejoined us from lots of continents all over the world. that's all for this edition of global questions: travel in a post—covid world. we're giving you lots of food for thought this time. remember, we're the programme that brings you the trend lines

behind the headlines. and if you want to be part of our programme, you can submit a question for the next programme to global questions. and next week, we'll be looking at what some people have described as "vaccine apartheid". so, until the next time, from me zeinab badawi and the rest of the global questions team, goodbye. hello there. much of this weekend looks fine and settled and sunny, thanks to high—pressure. but there is still a weak weather front affecting northern parts of the country through today. that's bringing a rather grey skies for parts of scotland and also northern ireland, bit of mist, also some drizzle. a huge contrast further south, much of england and wales is bright with plenty of sunshine, and after the chilly start, that slightly stronger sunshine is getting to work, so it �*ll feel quite mild out there, but the next few days, pretty similar, largely dry with variable cloud, some

sunshine and nights will continue to be chilly. there's that weather front across northern areas which will tend to fizzle away as we move through the latter part of the day. high pressure dominating the scene for those light winds as well across the board. a little bit of cloud across scotland and northern ireland, the remnants of that weather front further south for england and wales, largely clear skies, so it's going to turn cold. could see a bit of low cloud and mist rolling into eastern england and east anglia towards the end of the night, but where we have the clear skies, chillier with pockets of frost, mist and fog, a little less cold for scotland and northern ireland, because here we'll have a little bit more in the way of cloud. our area of high—pressure still with us then as we move into part two of the weekend. we've lost that weather front as well across northern areas. so i think after some early cloud starts to break up across scotland and northern ireland, it should be a sunnier day for you through sunday. england and wales, plenty of sunshine around after a chilly frosty start, bit more cloud, though, affecting eastern england and east anglia. so here, i think temperatures may be suppressed a bit, 6—7 celsius in norwich. elsewhere though, where we have

that strong sunshine, 10—13 celsius will be the high, so very mild again. now, as we head through sunday evening and night, it looks like we could see some more substantial mist and cloud rolling in off the north sea across england and wales through the night, whereas further north, scotland and northern ireland should see clearer spells, so here it will be colder with a touch of frost than what it will be further south and east because there will be more in the way of cloud. but it could be that we start many places off on monday morning like this, rather grey with some mist and murk around, but at least mainly dry. now, if i run the pressure chart on through monday and into tuesday, you can see high pressure dominates the scene, but this weather front mayjust move northwards and affect southwestern parts of the country tuesday into wednesday to bring just a few showers. i think for most, this upcoming week is looking dry with that area of high—pressure influencing the weather. could see variable amounts of cloud, a little bit of sunshine in northern and western areas, and then signs of it turning chilly for all by the of the week.

this is bbc news the headlines at 6pm... tributes are paid to captain sir tom moore at his funeral — family members say his spirit will live on. the chancellor plans new measures to help people buy their own homes as he prepares his budget for next week. anas sarwar has been announced as the new scottish labour leader. he takes charge of the party ahead of the scottish parliament election on the 6th of may. ministers in england launch a campaign to reassure parents it's safe for children to return to the classroom. festival organisers call on the government for more support

to ensure events can take place this summer.