So, rain or shine. Want you to knowjust if you can where i stand oh, no, no, no. Ive come to the Lake District. With its glorious mountains and lakes, its always one of britains most popular tourist destinations, and this summer, it seems packed. The traffic is pretty heavy. Every pub that ive seen so far has just been packed to the point of people falling out the door, and thats the same with every restaurant, as well. For some Holiday Makers here, the staycation is a new experience. Before covid, i think i hadnt been on holiday really in england at all. Id always tried to jet off to europe because it was so easy to. I booked it some months ago, and it was quite easy then, but of course, if wed left it any later, a lot of people are booked up because they cant go abroad. The great british staycation . I mean, the weather has really helped, and its fantastic. Weve gone on quite a few hikes. We went up helvellyn, and that was brilliant. | but for regulars, things have felt different this year. The earliest pictures i could find were from 2014. Heres me when i was 14. She laughs Ellie Lees has been coming here to the Lake District for years, but this summer, she noticed a change. There was more noise, there was more people, a lot more, like, a lot more cars. Almost as if, like, wed brought the city with us. Everyone was leaving their Dog Mess on the floor, you know, their disposable barbecues, their nappies. You know, and when you walked through the pavement, no one would move over for you. The contrast was mad compared to before covid, definitely. Covids meant a terrible 18 months for tourism, but this summer, accommodation in cumbria is 10 busier than normal, and Self Catering prices are up. In windermere, theyre an average of 42 higher than in 2019. Ive searched for two nights around windermere, so not around the lake specifically, butjust in this area. And so, the closest stuff its offering, theres a Hotel Room a couple of miles away, 316 quid a night. And some of these are going up to i mean, theres a four Star Hotel here, which is quite far out from windermere. £410 a night. Its not surprising most places here are booked up. 0ne Survey found that only one in five of us plan to go abroad this summer. At heathrow airport, there was an 80 drop in passenger flights thisjuly, compared with before the pandemic. Flying abroad this year comes with added costs, including Pcr Tests. So, how many Pcr Tests have you had . Theres five, five of us. How much . I think about 270. So, i paid about ego something. So, i paid £132 for myself and my daughter. Holiday makers also have to navigate the Traffic Light System, a guide to the Testing And Quarantine measures needed to travel abroad. Paul charles runs a Pr Firm that represents Holiday And Travel businesses worldwide. He lobbied the government to introduce the system, but isnt impressed with how its being run. The Traffic Light System i think has failed consumers. It hasnt worked in the way it shouldve done. It shouldve been really simple, enabling consumers to know whether a countrys red or whether its green. As simple as that. Then you either know somewheres out of bounds, or it isnt. Do you think the uks international Travel Industry has been left out in the cold . This summer is a write off, really. It hasnt been the summer the industry dreamt of. The Department For Transport told panorama. With fewer people taking off abroad this year, whats it been like for staycationers . The suitcases are full, the car is full. Have a look at all the Stuff Weve got to take. Weve asked some Holiday Makers to keep a Video Diary of their trips, and most of them had a good time. So, we have arrived at our staycation destination, and it is beautiful. Were all set up for our five days� holiday. We have the best house in England Woohoo one of our Holiday Makers is nicolle joy. Uk staycations this is what youve got to look forward to. Hey, nicolle. Hi. How you doing . She had Herforeign Holiday plans disrupted by the Traffic Light System earlier this year. Things kept changing, didnt they . So, like, red zones, l green zones, amber. So, the Traffic Light System . The traffic lights, but then, so, i didnt get to go. So you decided, this year, no going abroad. Im going for a staycation. Ive never, ever considered a staycation, ever. Nicolle travelled to a Spa Hotel in cheshire. Her Room Cost £360 for three nights, not including Breakfast Or Spa access. The drive up, it was so scenic. There was a massive lake. I was like, yay, i this is a bit of me and then, you know, i pulled up, saw the chandeliers, etc, like, the decor was really, really lovely. But after checking in, she began to discover issues with her part of the hotel, including a broken lift. So, then i had to go up these, like, i think it was like four flights of stairs, which was. Carrying your luggage . Carrying my luggage, which really irritated me. So, i was really disappointed when i first saw the room. I i was greeted by the smell. That was the first thing, because the Toilet Hadnt been working. It wasjust horrible. Did you complain about the room . They were to capacity in that| place, and so the only rooms that they could offer me were, like, a downgrade, which i think is unacceptable. It was only by, like, i the night before i left, where you could visibly see that i was really, really upset, i was like, i needl to speak to the manager, and kudos to them, cos they did actually give me some money back for that. How much did you get back . I think they refunded me, like, £100. Nicolles hotel say they refunded a third of the bill, there was a second lift in operation, and that an alternative room with a Working Toilet was kept available for her. Her Trip Cost around £500 in total, and there were some positives. When i was in the spa, i did enjoy myself. It was beautiful, and, like i said, the girls. There were really, really lovely, and so, that bit was good. Goodbye how do you think the value compares, in terms of staying in the uk and going abroad . It doesnt. I mean, £500 is not the most amount of money to pay for a little holiday, its not. But for the value for money, i felt like i couldve gone abroad and got way more, and also had, like, a lot more fun. Thats a wrap. Home time. Staycation over. So, is nicolle right . Could she have got more for her money abroad . New analysis from Consumer Group which . Shows just how much more expensive a Weeks Holiday for two in britain can be, even when you count flights. They compared prices for late August Getaways this year, and found a week in Brighton Cost £1,131, whilst a flight to nice in france and a Hotel Cost £1,085. A week here in Lake Windermere Cost £2,424, compared with just £802 for flights and accommodation for a week in Lake Garda, italy. So, the Lake District for seven nights, in this climate, is more expensive than Lake Garda . Not a little bit more expensive. Were not talking about £10, were not talking about the cost of a meal out. Were talking, in the comparison we did, of hundreds and hundreds of pounds. And the reason for that, it is the general cost. So, the accommodation is higher. When we looked at it, Accommodation Prices in 2019 were more expensive in the uk than they were abroad, so this isnt a Pandemic Problem only. Pandemic has made it worse. In brighton, some staycationers are noticing the difference. Some of the prices were extortionate, or the places werent nice at all. £800 for two nights. It was probably more than we wouldve liked to have paid for a two night stay, but. We just needed to get away on two major booking sights, average Self Catering prices have shot up this year. Across the uk, theyre up an average of 41 compared to august 2019. Thats an extra £300 a week. Sidmouth in devon saw an increase of 63 , Lyme RegisIn Dorset Rose by 74 , but in sussex, brighton had a massive 89 increase. Average August Prices here have risen to £206 a night, from £109 two years ago. So, whats driving prices up . Ive come to meet catherine lane, who owns Holiday Rental properties in brighton. Hey, catherine. Hello, hi its mobeen. How you doing . She has six properties, including this one bedroom apartment, which she rents out for between £150 300 a night. She says its fully booked until the winter. Have you put up your prices . Some prices, ive put up. Some prices are actually the same. For smaller properties, like this one, the price has gone up this one about 25 but our costs have also gone up considerably. So, for instance, now we have to have Cleaning And Sanitation costs, which are much higher. We have to have time for the cleaners to disinfect the place. I have spoken to people who are trying to go on holiday at this time of year. They feel like theyre being taken advantage of. I think the pricing has gone up to meet the high demand. Also, a lot of the pricing, we dont have control over. If youre booking via a third party advertising website, theyre putting commissions on the actual end price. Prices may be up, but are people getting value for money for their staycations . Church Minister Alison Meikle lives in grangemouth, scotland. This summer, alison and her husband hugh travelled over 400 miles to pembrokeshire for a Weeks Holiday in a self catered cottage. On some booking sites, Self Catering prices here have risen by an average of 27 since 2019. Alison found the property on the Sykes Cottages website. She thought it looked very clean, but the reality for alison was different. And how much money did you pay . It cost £1,700. 1,700 quid for seven nights is not cheap no, its not when you arrived at the cottage, when you opened the door, what happened . From the outside, the cottage looked lovely. We went in, it looked reasonably 0k, and then we started noticing things, foodstuffs on the light switches, Coffee Stains on the tables. Didnt want to use the cupboards, because they were all sticky, the worktops were all sticky. And we made a Cup Of Tea and sat down, and i looked at the windows and i thought, no, no, no, no. Couldnt say it had been cleaned in any shape or form. Itjust was very disgusting. Alison felt she had to take matters into her own hands to feel comfortable in the cottage. I said to my husband, i am not cleaning everything. I shall clean the things were going to use. Thats not a nice way to start a holiday, is it . No, it wasnt. It wasnt. But, i mean, £1,700, its not cheap, and you expect it to be clean. If it was that filthy, why didnt you just leave . Well, we had just driven eight hours, eight and a half hours, and to go back up wouldve been another eight, eight and a half hours, so that was too many hours in one day. Alison complained to the Cottage Owner and to sykes. Three days into her holiday, alison says the owner offered to send a cleaner round, but alison felt it was too little, too late. After panorama contacted sykes, they confirmed they would give alison a partial refund as a goodwill gesture. They said they apologised to the meikles, but the couple decided to leave before they were able to put it right. They told us. That they. And its. Cleanliness is always an important issue when booking a holiday. In the pandemic, many businesses are working hard to keep us safe. Visitbritain is the national tourism agency, funded by the government. Last year, they introduced the good to go scheme, to reassure Holiday Makers that the places they visit are covid safe and follow official cleanliness and social distancing guidelines. More than 43,000 business in the uk have obtained the good to go stamp of approval. Ive come to blackpool to meet local lee kennedy. He booked his staycation this year in another seaside town, scarborough, at the Britannia Grand Hotel. When he booked, the Britannia Groups website, which advertises their 62 hotels, displayed the good to go logo. Did you see that logo when you booked . I saw that online. It says that a business is good to go. Yeah. That wasnt your experience, was it . No, not at all. Lee booked a Family Room without breakfast, for him, his wife and two children. So, how much money are we talking, and for how many nights . Were talking £200, £200 for two nights. All right, so kind of decent to high expectations. I think with any uk hotel, you expect a certain level of cleanliness. I wasnt expecting the world, but i was certainly expecting to go there and have a real great family time, and for my kids to be safe, really. But the Britannia Grand Hotel didnt seem Too Grand to lee and his family. It didnt live up to the good to go promise. So when we arrived in the hotel, there was marks, there was waste in the carpets, there was bottles and glasses left all over the place, it smelt very damp. And in certain corridors, there were smells of urine. Lee felt the lack of cleanliness at The Grand Hotel could be a covid risk. So, ive got underlying health conditions. So, im diabetic and ive got higher Blood Pressure as well, so i felt that my health was at risk and i felt i was at risk of covid. And it was something that i needed to get my family away from very quickly. And lee is not the only person to have a problem with this chain. A survey last month judged the Britannia Group as the lowest rated Hotel Chain in the uk, with one star for cleanliness. Lee complained to the Britannia Grand Management and received a full refund. I know you got a refund, but did that make up for the fact that youd expected to go on holiday . You must� ve been left feeling pretty short changed. Absolutely. Disappointment for my children, disappointment for my wife. I was disappointed as well. We asked Britannia Hotels for a statement. They didnt respond. In england, there are nearly 28,000 businesses with the good to go accreditation. Panorama has discovered that visitbritain has carried out less than 1,000 in Person Spot checks. Visitengland says, businesses who display the mark. And that complaints are. It says it has already taken action against the Britannia Grand Hotel in scarborough, after previous complaints, and was suspending the group from the scheme whilst it investigates this allegation. Its not all bad news. Latest figures show Uk Tourism has an almost 80 customer satisfaction rate. Yeah, what can i get you . Can i have a lager . Yeah, pint of . But this year, its been a challenge for businesses to keep up with the rush. Back in the Lake District, im meeting up with landlord vince gregg, who runs two pubs. Even though business is now booming, like most in the hospitality industry, vince is still reeling from the cost of lockdown. Ive estimated, between the two businesses, its cost us about £100,000 is what its cost us. 100 Grand . £100,000. Between the two bars . Yes. Its quite scary, because, you know, ive got my mortgage, my pension on this, so theres a big financial cost to us. Theres a lot at stake for vince, and to make the most of the renewed demand, he needs a bigger team. You know, theres been a real Staff Issue in the Lake District, an employment crisis. We normally run on 15 to 18 staff. We have five. Youve got five in right now . Weve got. My wife and myself are working flat out, doing our normal roles in the business and also working in the bar, in order to support the bar and to support the staff. What is that Staff Shortage down to . 0ne, cos of brexit. And around here, weve got a lot of polish, bulgarian, lot of European Workers in the Lake District, and a lot of them have gone home because of the brexit. So, if those eastern European Workers that used to be here have left. And theyve not been filled. Then those vacancies havent been filled. They havent been filled. More than 90,000 eu workers have left the uks Hospitality Sector in the last year. But its not the only Challenge Vince and his team face. On top of the brexit and what its cost the Lake District is, with the uncertainty of the hospitality industry, staff have left the industry. Weve had Staff Leave to work in Tesco Supermarket and asda, where its a more reliable source. They dont know whether theyll get furloughed. Theyre going backwards and forwards with the lockdown and reopening, so its scared a lot of staff off. Across the entire hospitality industry, there were 117,000 Job Vacancies between may and july this year. Thats 27 higher than the same months in 2019. Being short on staff often means customers run short on patience. Becca murdoch is Assistant Manager at another bar in the Lake District. Has yourjob and how people treat you changed a lot during the pandemic . Its completely changed. Its nothing like what it was last year. So now, its. People are queuing up for hours and theyre in a mood when they come. And then theyre hungry cos they cant get any food, cos its fully booked and were short staffed. Becca, what kind of stuff do people say to you and how do people respond . Even the other day, this man, like, a man about 40 or something, walked in with a pint from a different pub, and i was like, look, im not going to serve you. Sorry. Youve walked in with a pint from a different pub. It goes against licensing. And hes fully squared up to me, going, what the hell are you going to do about it . You dont know who i am. I can stick up for myself within reason, but having, like, a grown Man Squaring up to you, with no one else to protect you, its quite daunting. Beccas not alone in feeling this way. In a survey this year, 61 of Uk Hospitality staff said they received or witnessed verbal abuse from customers. Has it made you think about leaving the industry . Yeah, to be honest. Like, i love myjob, i love the company i work for, 99 of the guests are lovely, but. Well, 95, lets say, of the guests are lovely, but theres that 5 that ruin your day, when one persons rude to you. And although you shouldnt let that one person bring you down, it does. Were human, you know . Becca works for one of the businesses run by stephen hargreaves. He has three catering businesses, including bars and restaurants, and two hotels across the Lake District. You would think that people would be nicer and friendlier after everything that weve all been through. That doesnt seem to be the case. So, were having more issues of staff being abused and being called names and being threatened than weve ever had in our industry. Although stephen is benefitting from a busy summer, his business has lost about £1. 2 million during the course of the pandemic. He also has around 15 vacancies to fill. Are you confident that theyre going to be filled within, what, the next seven days, the next month . No. The next couple of months . No idea. I think the whole industry will have to rethink how we operate, what hours we open, what days of the week we open, the Government Money to support that, with Potential Vat Reductions or rate reductions, so that businesses dont have to trade 15, 16 hours a day to pay the fixed costs. It has to be completely re looked at. Uk Hospitality Businesses have suffered a £100 billion drop in sales since the start of the pandemic. And though staycations may be up this summer, Tourist Numbers from outside britain are still massively down. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has put in place measures to help Hospitality Businesses in england survive. A quarter of all furloughed staff worked in this sector, and there was last years £850 million eat 0ut to help 0ut scheme. Is that not yours . No youre kidding me they laugh its not a veg Katsu Curry, or a regular chicken Katsu Curry . No, theyre not ours. Business rates in england were cut entirely this spring. Now theyre reduced by two thirds until april next year. Mr sunak has also reduced Uk Vat rates for eligible Hospitality Businesses until april. Scotland, wales and Northern Ireland have all had their own measures to help hospitality. Kate nicholls, from Uk Hospitality, is concerned that even those Measures Wont be enough to save many businesses. We have a, sort of, economic Long Covid for the Hospitality Sector. Part of that is because those businesses who have managed to survive the Black Swan of Covid Have come out with really high levels of debt and they are going to have to spend the next 18 months to two years paying down that debt before they can look confidently towards recovery and growth. Those Business Rate bills kick in in full next march, and thats the big cliff edge, march 2022, when vat is scheduled to change, Business Rates are scheduled to change, and we fear that we could have a large number of Business Failures on the back of that. The treasury says Business Rates relief and the vat reduction. And it is right, that as demand for Hospitality Services increase. The Hospitality Sector is hoping for a brighter future, but what they Cant Account for is the weather. Its been mixed this year. Earlyjuly saw the first ever amber extreme heat warning. But later, parts of England And Scotland had double the average rainfall. Wales didnt escape the rain either, but caravaners here in prestatyn are making the best of it. I love it. Doesnt bother me whatsoever. I love it when its stormy, love it when its good. When youre on holiday, youre on holiday, arent you . You take it as it is. So rain or shine. Its what you make of it, isnt it . You just get out and about and go for a walk, hence the big coat, the brolly and the dog coats, yeah. What more can you do . Bit crap this weekend, you know, to be perfectly honest, with the weather, but i think weve been very, very lucky. Weve had a good summer up to now. Weve had rain in benidorm, weve had rain in the costa del sol, you know, it doesnt matter where you are, youve got to have the weather, havent you . When you come again, fetch the sun. Whether theyve made it abroad, gone for a staycation, or stayed home this year, most people ive spoken to have tried to make the best of it. This weekend is the last Bank Holiday of the season, and an opportunity for Holiday Makers and businesses alike to finish the summer on a high. Music the sea by morcheeba i left my soul there, down by the sea i lost control here living free i left my soul there down by the sea i lost control here. Hello. A lot of cloud around to start friday. There will be some sunny spells coming through and developing more widely across scotland as we go through the day. Rather cool and cloudy along the east coast. Fog patches clearing in Northern Ireland, sunny spells to come for wales, especially in the west. Bright skies for southwest of England And Cumbria seeing some sunshine. Perhaps developing a bit more widely through some of the Eastern Parts of england on through the afternoon. A close to the coast of eastern scotland, Northeast England with cloud on the breeze from the sea, 15 16 degrees elsewhere around 17 to 20. A little warmer and prolonged sunny spells and clear spells with cloud of and into saturday morning, later in the night, early on saturday. The chance of finding the odd Shower Running on the breeze throughout southeast england more especially into kent. It is a low chance of catching a shower, most places on saturday are going to be staying dry, variable cloud and sunny spells and temperatures into the mid to high teens, but with any sunshine, into the low 20s. Bye bye. This is bbc news. Our top stories the united states insists the Kabul Airlift will continue, despite two attacks, killing more than 60 people near the airport. An eyewitness described the carnage at the scene. ~ , � scene. Translation the explosion scene. Translation the explosion was scene. Translation the explosion was really scene. Translation the explosion was really powerful, half or held into the water and others on the Ground Outside and encouraged the wounded here on stretchers here, my clothes are completely bloodied. Clothes are completely bloodied. , � bloodied. President biden raises bloodied. President biden praises the bloodied. President biden praises the 13 bloodied. President biden praises the 13 us bloodied. President biden praises the 13 us service | praises the 13 us service personnel victims as heroes and vows to track down the perpetrators. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. And an affiliate of the islamic State Group says it carried out