the end of the week for side towards the end of the week for thursday into friday, just about double figures by date if you have gardening plans which could have a return of frosty nights. bye for now.

hello this is bbc news. the headlines. families are told to buy their own oxygen as india hits a record number of new coronavirus cases for the fourth day in a row. the uk is sending more than 600 pieces of medical equipment to the country in a bid to help — including oxygen concentrators and ventilators. a senior minister declines to say whether borisjohnson was ever lent money or sought donations to help pay for the redecoration of his downing street flat. england's biggest football teams — and the sport's governing bodies — will stage a four—day boycott

of social media from next friday to campaign for social media companies to crack down on online abuse. and, as la gears up for tonight's oscars, we go behind the scenes at the ceremony�*s new venue — union station. now on bbc news... the travel show. this week on the travel show: how the travel industry uses your money to pay for someone else's holiday. transforming trash into art in lisbon. what really matters is the message behind the pieces. and i'm looking for killer whales in norway. so, a killer whale can take down a great white shark? yeah, they would flip it over on the back. oh, my days!

hello and welcome to this week's travel show, with me, ade adepitan. now, i'm in london this week, basically because we can't go anywhere, but we're still hoping that we'll be allowed to get back out on the road again very soon. until then, though, we are taking the opportunity to ask some big questions about travel. last time, we were asking if the pandemic will change the way we all travel in the future. this week, we're looking at why it took months and months for so many of us to get our refunds back last year, as we investigate the business of travel. the way that holidays work, it can be quite shocking to people. we will see more and more airlines going bust.

something has to give. travel is a massive global industry. back in 2019, global tourism revenue amounted to nearly $1.5 trillion us that's the equivalent to about half of the uk's entire goods and services. for decades, the travel industry has operated in a distinctive way. a model has developed in which money is taken in advance of people going on holiday, helping to fund other operations in the short—term. everything about that works fine, as long as people keep buying holidays. but what if, say, a global crisis comes along? when lots of people can't take trips, and they want their money back, well, the cash has already been spent. and with so few new bookings coming in, there are delays

in refunds — or worse. during covid—19, this is one of the factors that lead to issues in getting money back to customers promptly. you would expect any business to have savings in the bank, and yet, so much of the travel industry, when this struck, it seemed like there was almost nothing left. i feel like the public trust in the industry — the travel industry has eroded, unfortunately. a lot of people have — are still actually waiting for refunds to this day, and a lot of people feel like businesses have put profit over people. so i think it's going to take a long time before people trust businesses again. i hope this will change a lot, but only by putting customers' money in trust, but governments are also now starting to look at the impact this is has had on consumers. some of us who booked through online travel agents, companies which themselves were left waiting for refunds to be signed off by airlines

or accommodation providers, had to wait before they could then pass them back onto us. the influence of these online middlemen is another thing that's had an impact on how the finances of the travel industry operate. at soar mill cove hotel on england's south coast, they've been preparing for the return to work after the latest lockdown. we're a small family hotel set in south devon. we have 22 bedrooms, we have two self—catering units, a lovely restaurant, and outside dining area, which we'ave just extended. it's a real challenge to get things there. and we've often been referred to as a hidden gem, which is lovely a customer, but of course, in the interest of being a successful business, we want everyone to know about us.

online travel agents or, otas, like booking.com, expedia, and tripadvisor have helped hotels get noticed and help travellers shop around for good deals. but there are some downsides, too. we've taking quite the brave move to step away from what i would consider the biggest of the otas more recently. and that was for a number of reasons, really. well, for hotels, one of the main ways is that otas have an arrangement to have access to sell a certain number of the rooms — all of them, in lots of cases. the otas will charge a commission for every room they sell. the rate of commission has gone up over the years. it now ranges from around 15—25%. a difficulty for the hotels is where something called rate parity comes in. it's different around the world, but generally speaking, the hotels aren't allowed to offer cheaper rates than the ota.

hotels struggle to get customers to book direct, in face of competition from otas. in my last proper year of trading, and — we were spending upwards of £30,000 per year in commissions to booking agents, which is a huge amount, considering we are only a small hotel, and margins are already very, very tight. so, it is of course a huge part of our decision to move away from 0tas. ultimately, if margins are increasingly being squeezed, then something has to give, if we're to make do with what we're doing, and that's not a compromise that we're willing to make. and for some, the cost of convenience means that us travellers will have to pay more. previous research that we've carried out has found that in the uk, this has raised prices anything up to 10—20% across the board, so, anything you're saving in shopping

around, unfortunately, is being passed on because of this general raise. our advice, and we have backed this up with research as well, is if you contact the b&b or the hotel directly, this is notjust uk, but europe as well, anywhere that you are, you will almost certainly be given a better deal. because it helps you get around those rate parity clauses. but it was aviation that held a lot of the travel headlines during the pandemic. confusion and delays over refunds once again caused concern, but then questions were raised as to whether they could see out the crisis. the impact very much depends on the government support. so, different governments provided different levels of support for the aviation industry, and for the travel industry as a whole. theoretically, most airlines should have had enough money in the bank to see them through six or eight

months of any sort of situation like this. but realistically, many of them didn't, for a wide variety of reasons. but the difficulties the airlines have faced to survive the covid—i9 pandemic could have big implications on the cost for flying in the future. i think one of the worst things that is likely to come out of the pandemic is an increase in the cost of flying long haul again, because we have seen so many budget carriers either go under, or significantly trim their route. that is really true of the whole world, and it was happening before the pandemic, the pandemic exacerbated it. it could be that all of the disruptions to the industry caused by the pandemic will have a long—lasting impact on all of our travels. i think after a year of this pandemic, that travellers are going to feel more empowered, i think you are going to find people more willing and more keen to actually read the fine print and to understand the terms and conditions and to also know their rights and protections.

well, i'm sure many of you are like me, itching to get out there, exploring again. while we're staying at home, and staying safe, we've gathered together a few ideas to maybe ease your wanderlust a little. here is this week's virtual global guide. may 5 marks 200 years since the death of napoleon bonaparte. and to mark the occasion, there's a day of virtual events planned, including events streamed from saint helena, the remote british island he was exiled to for the last 5.5 years of his life. you can learn more about the island and watch the proceedings on the napoleon 200 website.

looking back even further, almost 2,000 years into the past, an old roman temple has been given a digital makeover. the baalbek ruins in lebanon have been rebuilt in a bran—new app which lets you explore a 3d reconstruction of the original site. an audio guide fills in some of the history, and it's available to download on smartphones, tablets, and even vr headsets. and the cherry blossoms may have arrived a little early this year, but arigato tours still offer a number of seasonal virtual trips around japan. you can get a taste of one of their food events, wander around two of tokyo's buzziest neighbourhoods, or sample the spectacle of mount fuji. and the company plans to continue these online tours, even after the pandemic is over, a sign that perhaps virtual travel could be here to stay?

still to come on the travel show... we meet the portuguese artist transforming the streets, with rubbish. and i'm in the arctic, on the search for killer whales. they're around six, eight metres. oh, my days! so, basically, they can be higher than the boat. wow! well, next, we're off to lisbon, the hometown of an artist who freely admits the majority of his work is a load of old rubbish! portuguese street artist bordalo has built around 200 of these fantastic animal sculptures in over 20 different countries, and they're made entirely out of things people have thrown away. we caught up with him just before the pandemic, when he was installing his latest creation at home, in lisbon.

the animals, they have a lot of expressions that looks like us. they've got the eyes, the nose, they look sad, they look angry, or they look happy. so, i think animals are the best way to represent the nature. i wanted to use the trash to talk about the environmental issues, about the problems we are living nowadays. the pollution, the contamination, the waste, the over—consumerism. we know that this is destroying the nature. relaxing music.

his mind works in a different way. he has a very good sense on the three—dimensionality in how to create a sculpture or mural. how many pieces he needs, how to build them in layers, what to paint, what not to paint. most important part is to create the right shape and the right scale. for that, you just need to have a lot of materials. we play with the cuts, with screwing, and then we play with the textures. my team is made with some of my friends since ever. we know how to work together. we work quick. we're used to work together, painting in the street. in other countries, we need a local production team to collect all the tools and materials for us. there is, like, a classic list of stuff that we know that we need, and a few others that might change

between place to place or project to project. i hope that if there is a lot of people that enjoy what i'm doing, they understand the real message behind the work. because the thing is not, like, making beautiful things out of trash, that's just the first step that makes the people stop and look, but what really matters is all the idea and the message behind the pieces. i'm an artist and i want to make art. if you can create an idea that lasts forever, or an image, the idea is the most important. if the piece lives there for 20 years, i think it's going to live on a lot of minds for a longer time.

and to end this week, here's a trip i took to beautiful norway, just a few months ago, with a lot of covid measures in place. now, i was in search of one of nature's most powerful predators. here's how i got on. i had come here to seglvik, on norway's northern coast, which lies in the arctic circle. 2020 was one of the hottest years on record, with the highest amounts of c02 in the atmosphere ever reported, and that's despite a year of lockdowns which kept a lot of us at home. the arctic also saw record temperatures. it's heating up around twice as fast as the rest of the world, which is having an unpredictable impact on the area's wildlife. including the animal that draws travellers like me to this remote

part of scandinavia. the orca, or killer whale. i'd been told northern norway is one of the best places to see them in the wild. and i wanted to swim with one, which in arctic waters, meant getting kitted out in a very thick wetsuit. i'm going to pour hot water in it, and soap, and try to slide you in. so let me run through this, what can i say...this process. so, ten millimetre suit, you are lubricating it up with some hot water and washing up liquid. oh my days, this is madness, i hope my mum is not watching this. it might be a little bit cold. yeah, that's cold. 0oh! i see what you mean. iwill stand up... may i?

laughs. i better not be stuck in this. i just can't believe all of this palaverjust to get this on. laughs. everything's gonna be ok. oh my god! argh! laughs. you're geared up. oh my days. i don't think i can do anything. even turning is an effort. hello! here i come. the orcas don't spend all year here. they migrate to this coastline every autumn in search of herring to eat. i had arrived in time forjulie's

first trip to see them this season. what is the big deal about killer whales and orcas, what makes them so special? they are around 6—8 metres. that's huge! yeah, and their dorsalfins can also be two metres high. basically they can be higher than the boat. they are the apex predators of the sea, they hunt for, depending on where they are they can hunt on whales, great white sharks, on ray... so a killer whale will take down a great white shark? yeah, they would flip it over on the back and just eat the liver. oh my days. what i am trying to get my head around again is, if we see the apex predator of the sea, i'm going to have to get in the water with them? they are not aggressive to people. you will see that it will check you out. i can show you a video...

what have we got? oh wow, that is so beautiful. is that here? that was here. it was a juvenile, and very curious with a snorkeller. just playing? completely. how close... wow! that was two metres maximum. just two metres away from a juvenile orca that was just having fun. and enjoying, yeah. and it looks so beautiful. to be sure of seeing the orcas, we were here more than a week after they arrived in the area the year before. we are on orca watch. julie's got some friends who are out in boats and they are looking for them.

as soon as they see anything, hopefully, she will get the message and we head on out there. how far out do you think we need to go before we see them all, will they be anywhere around here? they can be anywhere and they can be fast, so we just have to look at the horizon and find a boat. do you see something there? julie and her husband rudolph used to run orca tours further south. a few years ago the whales moved north and the tours followed. and now since probably four years, we are seeing they are going more north, so of course we can't predict if they go more north, it is basically the plankton and the herrings who will tell us. do you think the patterns of their travel and the patterns of where the herring go, has that become more irregular

and harder to predict? something happened. i think everyone is aware about it, and every season is a guess, and we just have to wait and see what is happening and where they are going. but we don't know exactly why they are going more north, and why it is changing. after hours on the water, it became clear the orcas were a no—show, which was disappointing. julie told me they eventually arrived on the fjord two weeks later. it's hard to say for sure whether these shifting patterns are down to climate change. but with warmer temperatures affecting all manner of wildlife from seals to seabirds, from walruses to other species of whale, it's making its effects known across the entire ecosystem. and for more of my

round—the—world—trip tracking the impact of these changes, you can catch up with climate change: ade on the frontline, on bbc two this month, and the iplayer. that was an amazing trip, even if we didn't get to see any orcas. well, that's all we've got time for, butjoin us next week when we take a look back at some of our all—time favourite city breaks. here we go. from our art exploration around the new york subway, to our trip on board karachi's most colourful tour bus. there isjust so much more to karachi than we know. looks like that will be a good one. in the meantime you can catch up with all our past episodes on bbc iplayer, and you can also keep up with us online. but until next time, from me, ade adepitan, and all the travel show team

at our home here in london, it's bye—bye. hello. the sunny, dry theme to the april weather continued through the course of the weekend. this was the picture in wiltshire on sunday, so similar to many areas, blue sky overhead butjust quite dry and in fact quite cracked ground. some parts of southern england has seen barely any rainfall throughout the entire month so far. now this week a return to some scattered showers. we won't all be seeing them, but there is, thankfully, a little bit of rain in the forecast. and things turning a bit colder as well. we've got a small, slow—moving area of low pressure moving in from the north,

slowly slipping south over the next few days. so monday morning, then, starts off on a bit of a milder note. particularly for scotland where we've got more cloud. still likely to see a frost across parts of england and wales, particularly in the north. monday morning, then, initially quite a bit of cloud in the south but that will tend to break up so quite a lot of sunshine coming through. there will be more cloud for scotland with some patchy showers heading in and they will be heavier during the course of the afternoon for parts of eastern scotland. one or two into northern england and northern ireland. further south in the sunshine it's also less windy than recent days as well, so we are losing that biting easterly wind. still a bit of an onshore breeze making things cooler around the east coast, but further west temperatures for the likes of cardiff and belfast are up to about 16 degrees on monday. and then as we move through monday night into tuesday this area of low pressure still with us as it moves its way south we will start to see some showers rotating around that area of low pressure. so hit and miss scattered showers on tuesday, but they will probably avoid east anglia and the southeast where we could really do with a bit of rainfall around. staying quite mild in the south,

up to about 16 degrees in the sunshine, but turning colder from the north as the winds start to come in from a northerly direction. just 7 degrees or so for aberdeen. into wednesday i think the focus of the showers probably for wales and the southwest of england. fewer showers around elsewhere, perhaps one or two around these east coasts where it is, again, going to feel chilly. just 7 degrees for the likes of aberdeen. but could well be 15 or 16 for southern parts of england and wales too. but as low pressure drifts off towards the near continent that's going to open the doors for these cold north or north easterly winds, once again coming down from the arctic. so temperatures in the cold side towards the end of the week for thursday into friday, just about getting into double figures by day but do be prepared if you've got gardening plans, we could well see a return of frosty nights. bye for now.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. international aid is being sent to india as oxygen shortages drive up the coronavirus death toll. we report from delhi. we have seen body after body being brought in. it is hard for anyone to keep calm, but woodworkers have been telling me is that the real scale of deaths caused by covid—19 is higher than what official numbers reflect. the missing indonesian navy submarine is found split into three pieces on the sea floor. and we're celebrating film talent as it's academy awards night — we'll show you the new oscars venue in los angeles and talk to one of the nominated directors.