Hello, this is bbc news. The headlines the National Health service could soon be overwhelmed if people dont practice social distancing to tackle coronavirus. Thats the warning from the british prime minister. Londons mayor urges people to act responsibly. Unless people stay at home, unless people stop using Public Transport unless its essential, unless people stop interacting with each other, more people will die. Borisjohnson urges people to make the heroic and collective National Effort to slow the spread of the virus. He cautions against visiting loved ones on mothers day. Nhs england writes to 1. 5 Million People who are most at risk, strongly advising them not to go out for 12 weeks to protect themselves. Spain reports nearly 400 more deaths from coronavirus. Thats up by a third in 2a hours. The countrys state of emergency has been extended by 15 days. In india, more than a billion people have been asked to observer a m hour long curfew
to try to limit the epidemic. And in america, one in five people are ordered to stay at home as state authorities struggle to control the pandemic. Now on bbc news, in this weeks travel show, rajan datar isjoined by global guru simon calder to take a look at the impact of cancelled flights and lockdowns around the world. This week on the show our look at the impact the Global Pandemic is having on International Travel. Im stranded. Virgin cancelled my flight yesterday. Were trapped in our hotel for what seems like 15 days. I would love to get home, yeah. What are your rights if youve had trips cancelled . How do you cope if youre stuck in a country in lockdown and just
what does the future hold for all our travels . Just a year ago, and the headlines from places like paris and venice were very different. We all learned the word overtourism as we saw that cafes and attractions of some of our most loved places heaving with holidaymakers. Its a very different picture now. Many destinations are in lockdown as people are being asked to stay at home to protect their health and that of others. It means that tourists are being left stranded, holidays cancelled and Airline Bosses are predicting a grim future. Its unsettling to see some of the biggest and most popular attractions totally deserted. The taj mahal, eiffel tower, even the popular disney parks in the us all closed. The streets, especially in the european capitals, are looking empty. Paris and madrid have already been on lockdown for most of this week. Its been five days so far lockdown in my own home. The real problem is that we dont know how long are we going to be here. I am one of the lucky ones because i live with my wife so, you know, were together here. I think thats very important. I fear for people who live alone, especially old people. Hola my mum lives in a different city in spain and shes there all by herself. Shes 75 years old and that worries me. On the positive note, this crisis is bringing out the best in people. Theres somebody we know who is an old woman, 80 years old. And it was her birthday. The neighbours left a little birthday cake with a candle. The old woman opened the doors, saw the cake and everybody, all the neighbours in the courtyard started singing happy birthday to her. Cumpleanos feliz and she was very emotional and it was incredible. Every night, at 8pm, everybody goes out to the balconies and opens the windows and everybody claps. Clapping. And we give this round of applause for the people working in hospitals, people who are working in the chemists, people who are making, really trying
to fight this disease. So thats always a very special and emotional moment. Ive never seen madrid like this. Many governments, including the British Foreign office have warned against non essential travel anywhere in the world. Airlines are struggling, many have grounded up to 90 of their fleets. Research group the centre for aviation says, without a bailout, most of the worlds carriers will be bankrupt by may. Borders are closing, the eu, australia and new zealand are among the countries to stop foreign arrivals. Many cruise ships have ended their tours and flown all their passengers home. Sporting events the world over have been cancelled, footballs european championships, golfs pga championships and the opening races of the formula 1 season are all off. One of the most immediate problems is the number of travellers who found themselves stranded abroad
miles away from home. Weve been speaking to a number of you caught in that situation. My situation is that im stranded, virgin cancelled my flight yesterday, due to leave at 6 25pm from miami. I was told the day before that of the cancellation. The advice weve been given is quite confusing. I mean, im obviously not a fluent italian speaker so thats partly my fault. But generally, the advice given has changed every few days and varies by region quite a lot. Now is not possible to travel to the neighbouring islands or to the city unless you have a reason to do so. We also have curfew in place here between 10pm and 5am. We just want to get back to friends and family. I have a new grandson who is going to be six months old tomorrow. I havent seen him for six weeks now. Ive been told that i can book an alternative
flight but i dont know if that is with the same provider. Can i go with a Different Airline . Will i be reimbursed for doing that . It is unsettling. Theres so much happening everywhere. It is very easy to get caught up in the panic too when you speak to people. I would love to get home, yeah. Here i am right now in the travel shpw hq in london, and im joined by someone who will hopefully be able to untangle some of this and offer some clarity too and that is our global guru, simon calder. Hello, simon. Youve just returned from the middle east. How wass that journey, were you worried . Pretty much from the off, it started falling apart. My flight from saudi arabia to cairo was cancelled so i eneded up travelling overland through saudi arabia, crossing jordan, israel, which was just about to ban anyone from entering abroad, and across the sinai desert to cairo. Ifound myself coming up
against another flight ban which was coming into it effect in a couple of days time. Like many other people, i had little choice but to go straight to cairo airport and see what i could find to get out at any price. I talked to many travellers in the same position, including nikki fernandez. We were supposed to be flying out on saturday the 215t but then we heard first thing this morning from my mum that all flights from thursday onwards were being cancelled so we had to rush to get a flight sooner. Was it a straightforward matter . Did the airline change your flight ok . Absolutely not, we heard nothing from expedia who we booked through or with egypt air who we are flying with. We had to go through our concierge and we advised to go through the embassy but the British Embassy was not opening their doors despite there being a queue of us and other nationals. They gave us the home office number, we telephoned those but they didnt respond. Our insurance wasnt answering and expedia was not answering either so eventually we had to go straight to the airport to book an earlier flight. Clearly, you have done that. How much did it cost . An additional £630 each to switch to get earlier flights. Simon, there are lots of people who are stuck somewhere and many people have lost a lot of money. What is your advice . It is such an unusual situation that at this stage its a question of fly first, ask questions later. There are all kinds of experiences of people where the passenger rights rules should take effect but the airlines are simply ignoring them. They have very little choice they say. The situation is completely out of control. Travel insurance too. Of course, many people are assuming that their problems will be covered by that but unfortunately, it wont be for possibly weeks or months and when the dust has settled and people actually find out what they can claim back. But its going to leave many people out of pocket and of course, sadly, many great travel professionals out of work. Your advice is to get that flight and get home. Very much so. If you know that the government of the country you are in is banning International Flights in two days time just get online, find a flight, in extremis, go to the airport and see what you can find. Most people, i hope, will be able to get out. Tell me something, what are the most common problems hitting your inbox at the moment . At the moment, the most pressing is im in country x, trying to get home, help, what do i do . All i can say is, assume you wont get any help from your airline, your Insurance Company, or even from your embassy. You have to make decisions now, there is no time to lose. Spend what you need to, get family and friends to pay for your ticket just get yourself out and then ask question later. Nikki was referring to the fact that she couldnt get through to her own embassy. Is that common . Isnt that worrying . The normal workload of an embassy is maybe a handful of people every
week, maybe lost passports, people getting into trouble with the law, a sickness case. Theyre simply not cut out for the situation of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of nationals all being in the same position of having to leave their country at top speed. Im not really surprised this is happening. The systems we have in place simply never were designed for the worst emergency that has ever happened to travel. For the moment, simon, thank you very much indeed. Still to come a closer look at what this could mean for airlines as some ground their entire international fleets. And with many people still stuck abroad and others waiting for compensation, we put some fire questions to our global guru. If youre a regular viewer, you will know that we have a little
travel show family who live and work all over the planet. And like many other people, they have been facing a complicated International Travel situation not to mention the various stages of lockdown, isolation and worry. So we thought it would be a good idea to catch up with them to see how theyve been getting on. Hey, its mike and i am at the airport in cairo where it seems like its business as usual for the most part. Just more masks and gloves. I fully expect it to change when i get to heathrow and toronto Pearson Airport where ive heard things are crazy. My story didnt start here in cairo. It started in yemen. An island called socotra off the yemen coast which is kind of like the galapagos of the indian ocean. A dream trip id planned for months and id just gotten there and was three days in and i gota knock on my tent at three or aam, saying that there is one flight off the islands and there will be no more indefinitely and you should probably be on it. Hi, its carmen here in tokyo where i feel its a lot calmer than what im seeing elsewhere in the world. I guess japan had one of the first few cases of the coronavirus. So weve been living with these measures for quite some time. The panic buying seems to have stopped. There is a little bit of social distancing but i dont feel there really is because im at the park and as you can see behind me, its pretty busy. As a traveljournalist, im meant to be right now preparing for my trip to chile and south america, and of course thats not going to happen because the bbc, like most other companies, have cancelled all non essential travel. This is christa in hertfordshire at home. I was supposed to be in rome last week and next week i was supposed to be in thailand but both have been cancelled. The other reason im at home is a few days ago, i started to get a few symptoms, a cough and though im almost certain it was nothing to do with the coronavirus, i self quarantined. Im on day five currently and who knows how many more will need to come. Im just really hoping this can be resolved as soon as possible so we can get out there on the road and travel the world, which is what we love doing. Thats how the Current Crisis is affecting members of the travel show team, but of course, the impact is far wider than that. With hotels, cruise liners, and restaurants all facing an uncertain future. And perhaps, when it comes to lost revenue, the biggest impact will be felt by the Airline Industry. Its estimated one in ten jobs worldwide are dependent on tourism. In many places, especially in the developing world, its now in the top two or three industries. Tens, if not hundreds of millions depend on it for their livelihood. Many of these people now face unemployment. Airline bosses say the impact
is comparable to the 2008 Global Financial crisis, the sars outbreak and 9 11. But its widely accepted this is far worse and the effect will be long term. We propose to introduce a temporary restriction on non essential travel to the european union. A travel ban will be placed on all nonresidents, non australian citizens coming to australia. We will be suspending all travel from europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The boss of British Airways has described the situation as a crisis of global proportions, like no other we have known. And joining me now is paul charles, an aviation analyst and Communications Expert who has worked in the Airline Industry for 20 years or so, thank you forjoining us. As an expert, you have helped airlines steer through crises before. But in terms of scale, how would you compare this Current Situation with those . This is seismic, and airlines are on their knees. They have never faced anything on this scale and several of them are on a cliff edge anyway because of the position they were in before the coronavirus outbreak occurred. So there is no precedent to this . It is unparalleled . The ash cloud, financial crisis, sars, mers, were all much smaller scale and some of them were regional not global and the issue here is that we are dealing with a Global Crisis and that is why airlines are cutting up to 90 of their capacity, running threadbare operations in most cases and they are not sure they will never get back to where they were at the start of 2020. We may be at that moment where government is clearly stretched and do not have all the resources in the world, they will have to say we do need to pick and choose in this industry. Is it better to save one Major Airline in the country and to save a sector rather than let
the whole sector go under . I think they are looking at airlines and saying maybe some do have to fail, notjust in the uk nor in europe but globally. And that will be a very testing period for some airline executives. How do you think airlines will respond to passenger worries . Airline Customer Service teams have never been under so much pressure. This is unprecedented. Understandably they are struggling to cope. The best advice really is to not contact your airline until three days before you are due to travel if you have a booking already. There is no point clogging up the phone line or their e mail by contacting them now if you are booked to fly in six months time. They probably do not have answers and you do not need an answer at this stage, you can wait a little longer. But if you are flying within 72 hours you should try to contact them and that is where you prioritise. Airlines themselves are saying please dont talk to us until 72 hours before the flight. We will get through the enquiries but it will take time. We will get through this and we have an inherent desire to travel, it is in our dna. The virus will not kill that off. We will want to travel again and the industry will recover. Returning now to more of your stories of being stuck abroad. We had a number of you get in touch from peru after the borders closed on monday. The situation in cusco is that the borders have been shut down over a very short period of time so we were not even given any warning and everything was cancelled. Were just trapped in a hotel for what seems like 15 days, it could be longer. I am in lockdown so the only reason i am allowed out is to go to the shop to get food or to go to a chemist. Otherwise i am to stay
inside and i will be stuck here for a while. Our biggest concern is the lack of help from the british government. All the embassies in peru have closed down due to virus spread. I am feeling frustrated at the lack of information and, actually, even responses on twitter from different people, we get robot responses every time. Talk to your travel company, no matter what has been asked. We are trying to remain positive. We were lucky enough to secure an air bnb for the two weeks that the country is supposed to be shutdown, until april one. The advice i would give to any traveller stuck overseas right now is probably to get on twitter and see if there are other people in a similar situation because i found that banding together with people in the same situation in the same country, even in the same city has been really, really good and really supportive. We have shared advice and almost
come together as a force. You are a stronger voice if you can get together than if you are on your own. Just some of the people who contacted us after finding themselves stranded a long way from home because of the Current Crisis. Im joined now by our global guru simon calder who can hopefully offer advice. People say they have trouble getting through to their airlines and one person said they were on hold for three hours. What would your advice be if you cannot get in touch with your carrier . Paul charles was saying a moment ago that Many Airlines are overwhelmed. They certainly are. If you have given it your best shot and could not get an answer in a reasonable time then you need to make your best decisions and spend whatever you need to, keep receipts and make a reasonable claim afterwards. And, by the way, in many cases airlines are saying just accept a voucher for future travel online. If your flight is actually cancelled, which is happening a lot, you are entitled to a cash refund and a voucher might not do you any good. Hold out for real money. Mick tweeted us saying he had a holiday to venice booked to leave two weeks ago. Uk government advice was to not travel to northern italy so why have my Insurance Company rejected the claim . How are Insurance Companies responding to the situation and what is your advice in this situation . Like everybody else, travel insurers are in uncharted territory. They are understaffed and their finances are under tremendous pressure, so it does not surprise me that mick has been refused. In his case he can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service in the uk who, if he thinks he has a valid claim, will make the insurer pay it. The travel show has viewers around the world and there will be local laws which may or may not offer some help. All i can say is that the Insurance Industry is not going to be in a hurry to pay people out
because this will cost it millions. A tweet here from a viewer in the uk that after a six nations match was cancelled in paris he got a full refund from the hotel but the Train Company charged him £70 to change his rail ticket and offered no refund. What would your advice to him be . We heard from so many sports fans who had been planning trips based on a particular event which is then being cancelled and they are saying what do we do . I am afraid in his case and in many others, the Train Company is perfectly able to take him to paris and back. But the fact that he does not want to go is not their problem. They are applying terms and conditions as they are entitled to. So at least be glad you got the refund on the hotel. Finally, a tweet from anthonyjohnson who told us i just ended a trip in southern argentina. It took four days and four flights to finally get home. I would like to send my appreciation to all Airline Staff still working across the world. Without them i would
never have gotten home. It is a great story and all the way through at a time when the industry of Human Happiness has neverfelt so miserable and there has been so much despair, people who sadly know theirjobs are on the line are still delivering absolutely top class professional safe service to get people where they need to be. A positive note for ending on in a negative situation. Thank you forjoining us, simon. We have had to cancel or postpone many of our travel plans which means that the travel show will be looking a little different for the time being at least. However, fingers crossed we will be you on the road again doing what we love doing, making programmes that hopefully you enjoy. From me and the rest of the travel show team, wherever they are in the world right
now, it is goodbye. Some sunshine on the cards today, very springlike out there, we have pictures showing blossoms and daffodils, and the sunshine will continue throughout the rest of today and this evening, even the cloud we had, particularly from Northern Ireland and mainland scotland, is drifting away in that low pressure is continuing its hold on the uks weather so dry weather
for another three orfour on the uks weather so dry weather for another three or four days. More sunshine in Northern Ireland compared with yesterday. All cloud in the highlands and islands, the wind is generally not as brisk as yesterday but they are easterly and not as strong as yesterday butjust providing that chill, particularly near the north sea coast. But the most of us it has not felt quite as chilly out and about but again it will be a cold evening in cold night because there is nothing to stop those temperatures from falling. We have less breeze tonight so colder still, a bit of mist and fog in some of the River Valleys as well. It is widely frosty away from the far north and west because here we have that cloud around but the most of us this is how monday morning will look. The north west, here a change, a strengthening south to south westerly wind bringing rain to the western and Northern Isles and
perhaps the far north west, but it provides more cloud so hazy sunshine for Northern Ireland, but the most of scotland, england and wales, again unbroken sunshine. We lose that wind by tomorrow so even the east coast will see temperatures up into double figures as well and that will continue into tuesday but of course monday night into tuesday will be another cold one, particularly for england and wales, less so further north and west because of strong winds, more cloud in our weather front close by. There isa in our weather front close by. There is a met Office Warning from monday to wednesday for the highlands and the islands because we could see 11 5 inches of rain. You can see particularly for the Western Isles and the Northern Isles the heaviest rain through tuesday. Elsewhere, more cloud around making the sunshine hazy but we could realise 16 and a few localities, that is 61 fahrenheit. That fine weather will continue but we will buy wednesday
see the cloud increase and some rain coming eastwards as well. As ever, more on the website, goodbye. This is bbc news. The headlines the National Health service could soon be overwhelmed if people dont practice social distancing to tackle coronavirus. Thats the warning from the british prime minister. Londons mayor urges people to act responsibly. U nless unless people stay at home, unless people stop using Public Transport, u nless people stop using Public Transport, unless people stop interacting with each other, more people will die. Borisjohnson urges people to make the heroic and collective National Effort to slow the spread of the virus. He cautions against visiting loved ones on mothers day. Nhs england writes to 1. 5 Million People, who are most at risk, strongly advising them not