You up to date on the it is time now for the travel show. Coming up on this weeks show an uphill struggle for europes ski resorts. The Lift Closures changed a lot things so people came here for Cross Country skiing. Gorgeous view. The Italian Village trying to stay on its hilltop. And the show that must go on in dubai. I have no safety, i have no harness. I cannot have mistakes. Hello and welcome to the show where its pretty safe to say, 11 months on from the start of the pandemic, travel to and from the uk has pretty much ground to a halt. Laughs. And if youre like me and you just cant wait for the opportunity to get back on the road again and see more of the world than your own front garden, then why not stick with us . We will be updating you with how the Travel Industry is trying to cope with the pandemic, plus, a bit of inspiration for things to see and do once those Travel Corridors are reinstalled and we can perhaps start exploring again. But first, its that time of the year when some of us start packing our ski suits and get ready to hit the slopes. But with an ongoing Global Pandemic and Travel Restrictions all across the world, travelling to the mountains is an uphill struggle. In the uk, all the ski resorts in scotland have closed their ski lifts until the current lockdown is lifted. Elsewhere, in europe, many ski stations have simply shut down for the season or remain open only for the locals. Chamonix is one of the oldest and most famous ski resorts in the french alps where this year theres a lot of snow but very few tourists. This the laiguille du midi lift station, it is the highest lift in western europe. Normally this Platform Area would be absolutely buzzing with people waiting to take the lift, with alpinists, with ropes people with their skis, every nationality you could imagine. Theyd be waiting here to take the lift. This is an extremely lively place in normal times. Since october, like other ski lifts across france, this cable car has remained closed by Government Order in an effort to stop the spread of covid i9. Perhaps the danger is not so much in the Outdoor Activity of skiing, which is considered pretty safe, but its more the gathering of groups of people and when you have ski, you inevitably have apres ski and thats something the government wants to avoid. I live and work in chamonix. Ive been here for 35 years now. The situation now with very few tourists is extremely strange. Its one that i have never experienced. Yes, its a very sad situation for all of the people who depend on tourism for their livelihoods. Like other european countries, france has decided to shut its restaurants and bars, and a curfew now moved to 6pm its a major blow for the people working here in the valley. Theres no talk of reopening yet though, the government has confirmed that ski lifts will remain shut in february. Im sure the season is dead, im sure about that. Compared to december last year, our turnover is down by 62 , which is enormous. And because of this, i have been employing only four seasonals instead of 21 normally. At the moment, our clients are the locals and we have also people coming from switzerland a few of them. But there is no more foreigners in chamonix and this is how we live normally with the foreigners and for the moment, we dont have any. Although we found one group of foreigners who seem to enjoy their time here. Were from australia but we live in lyon. We dont get much snow in australia so this is my first time seeing snow. Its pretty beautiful. Its a shame we cant go up on the mountain and ski but we are making the most of it with our snowman and everything. Well have to come back next year hopefully when things i are a little bit more normal hopefully. I for others, the closure of ski lifts has been a way of rediscovering other things to do in the snow, like sledging. Because the Alpine Skiing is not possible, we have had customers who have been asking for the new things, and the new thing is touring skis. This is a touring skis with a proper binding. You have got pins on the front which helps the boots to go like this when youre climbing. And then you put the skins on the skis like this, and like this its going to help you climb the mountains. Ski touring, snowshoeing, Cross Country, normally the people who would have been skiing are doing those activities instead. And also, there have been so many people in the Mountain Making Sledging tracks and building snowmen and people who normally ski dont have time for those activities. So it is a little bit more of a back to nature and resourcing. And just enjoying the peace and quiet of the mountain as well. My name is daniele, i have been a Ski Instructor in chamonix for 20 years now. So the Lift Closures have changed a lot of things in the valley, you can imagine, because Chamonix Valley is very, very famous for downhill ski. So people came here in the holidays for the last Christmas Holidays here in chamonix, and the change of ski came here with the Cross Country ski. It was incredible. We had so many people here on loop, many, many skiers in chamonix. I have never seen that, never. We had so many people trying to have some lessons. We didnt have enough Ski Instructors in the valley. That was incredible. Some people will come back to Cross Country skiing next year too because they enjoy it. See where we are, look at the snow, the snow on the trees. It is much more quiet than downhill skiing. You have always got the noise of the chairlifts, its very noisy. Here its, its a totally different atmosphere so i think they enjoy this a lot. Well, stay with us because still to come on the show weve got the Italian Village clinging to its hilltop. You have to be like very very focused and concentrated on what youre going to do. And we find out how the show can go on in dubai. Welcome back to london, a city in lockdown where we are now getting used to seeing virtually deserted streets. Well, imagine living in a place thats acustomised to being empty thanks to a constantly falling population. Last year, before the current Travel Restrictions were in place, i went to italy to a Hilltop Village thats in exactly that situation. Civita, today they call it the dying town but it was once home to more than 3,000 people. Now they reckon there are just seven permanent residents here. And they are heavily outnumbered by tourists up to 10,000 a day. As you approach the town, you can see just why. Gorgeous view. This bridge by the way is the only way up to the village, and back for that matter. You can only walk, you cant drive. Its about 300 metres, it gets pretty steep. Its a pretty stunning entrance as well, isnt it . Civita dates back more than a thousand years but over the centuries, its population has dwindled and notjust for economic reasons. Because this town is actually physically collapsing itself. In fact, it was once three orfour times the size it is now. Wow, so luca, this is a really steep drop in the rock face. What caused this . And this is a problem that is continuing today, even up to today there is still a big danger that this will collapse even more. Ironically, although there are hardly any local amenities, no supermarkets, no post office, no police station, some businesses are booming because of increasing visitor numbers. Like this cantina, a restaurant owned by one of civitas few remaining residents. She grew up here as a child and watched the town change around her. Rosanna, tell me, what was it like here when you were growing up as a child . Was it sad for you to see so many of your friends leave and just you left behind . Indeed, now in civita, some young locals are seeing opportunities to stay. Like daniela and her brother, who set up a business here. In the olive fields overlooked by civita, where she played as a child, daniela got the inspiration to create cosmetics that evoke the unique landscape. The basic fact is, for civita as a whole to survive, it will need money. To cross the bridge you now have to pay five euros, and its in the running to become a unesco World Heritage site which would bring with it funding to help secure its future. Luca, the geologist, had one more thing to show me. He thinks that through monitoring long term planning and by reinforcing the base of the valley, civita can be saved for the benefit of the all. In the meantime, innovations are helping to secure this precious town. Hand on heart, luca, do you really think that civita can be saved . Fingers crossed. Grazie. Now back here in london, the capitals world famous theatreland took a huge hit during the pandemic with virtually all forms of Live Entertainment being forced to shut down. Entertainment is a huge draw for Tourist Destinations and a few years ago. I visited dubai to meet the Cast Of A New Theatrical Extravaganza called la perle. We are talking 65 world class artists, athletes and performers. Were talking motorcycles circling around in a bowl in mid air, and best of all, in the middle of a desert, you can even get rain. Like venues all over the world, they too were forced to shut down when the pandemic hit but now theyre up and running again. And last month, lucy got a behind the scenes look at how they managed to reopen. Its about five oclock so there are two hours before showtime and i have been lucky enough to get a Sneak Preview of the technical rehearsal that these guys do every night. It looks incredible and i cannot wait for showtime. Bring it on. La perle is a Mixture Ofjaw dropping acrobatics, visual effects, music and dance, performed here nightly in a specially built theatre inside a Hotel Complex in the heart of dubai. Bringing a touch of las vegas spectacle to an audience who in normal times is usually made up of tourists from Around The World. Carlos is one of the highlights of the nightly show, performing amazing and daring feats of agility on his giant rotating wheels. Where one false move could spell potential disaster. So carlos, i have been watching you with equal measures of dread and awe on The Wheel Of Life or the wheel of death as it was formerly known, how do you do that . You must be physically strong because it is heavy and then mentally strong and you have to be very focused and concentrate on what youre going to do. I have no safety, i have no harness. I cannot have a mistake. The show closed down on march 15 last year as a lockdown was announced in dubai and International Tourism here ground to a halt. But four month later, the decision was made to try and reopen the show. The performers and crew still in dubai agreed to form bubbles, a strict covid safe seating plan was introduced and once local authorities were happy, tickets went on sale again. When we came back to the theatre on august first, we came three weeks advance to perform, to practise, to get back into shape, to bring back the show together. This show requires a lot of training. So they say were going to open but it depends on you guys if were going to keep open the theatre. So you have to take measures. I sacrifice myself but at the same point, at the same time, i am grateful because i am allowed to, despite all these problems, i can still perform what i like. Live theatrical entertainment Around The World has been decimated by the pandemic. And here at la perle they practically reinvented their shows so that performers, crews and audience members could stay as safe as possible. And that has meant pretty much rebuilding the entire production from the ground up. How about the choreography, how have you redesigned that to ensure there is enough distance between performers and the audience . 0riginally we had a lot of changes because we normally have people flying all over the audience, coming very much into audience interaction. There are even artists coming onto the stage from within the audience. A lot of that was going through the whole show on day one, going to do that, not gonna do that, cannot do that. So were just running a lot of contingencies right now and one day, hopefully we will be able to bring those segments of the show back in. For now, we will still give the audience the same feeling without coming into contact with them. The audience is beginning to filter in, the seats have been sanitised and i can see people in their bubbles, safely socially distancing. If im being honest, it feels a little weird being here after ten months of absolutely no Live Entertainment but its amazing were going to see a show and i cannot wait. With all the restrictions in place and fewer performers on stage, rob describes the new show as a more intimate experience and reduced Audience Capacity means less revenue from ticket sales. But while International Tourism will not return to pre covid levels for some time, local audiences here in dubai have remained loyal, with many of them coming to see the show for the very first time. I play more with the audience because i feel they are shy and afraid sometimes, especially, not many shows in the world are open the show must go on. Were going to survive. And that is it for this week. Coming up next time grab your coat were revisiting some of our favourite snowbound adventures. From ade� s stay at swedens iconic ice hotel. What is the temperature in this place . 5. To entering an endangered glazier. It is beautiful. Wish me luck. And christas head first ride down a bobsled run. And in the meantime, dont forget you can follow us on facebook and instagram. Heres to the time we can get back on the road and travel again. We will see you next week. Goodbye. Hello there. Heavy snow is on the way for tuesday. The met office have issued an Amber Weather Warning for this one across parts of Northern England, where were looking at around io iscm of snow over the higher ground. Its more than enough to cause Transport Disruption. Some roads will be shut, and we could see some power cuts as well. This area of low pressure, then, these Weather Fronts are pushing into cold air thats with us across scotland and Northern England and will be slow to budge through the course of tuesday. So its one of these situations where the rain is starting to turn to snow, and that will continue over the next few hours. Now, the initial concerns will be across parts of Northern England, where we could be looking at around 3 8cm building in. But across some of the hillier areas, you dont have to go too high up for this, were looking at around io iscm. I think sheffield could be one of the places that gets hit pretty hard with this. Notice the snow isntjust limited to the pennines. Across into cumbria, Into Southern Areas of scotland, well also see snowfall developing through the day, so were more likely see some disruption in some of these areas, as well. Now, funnily enough, away from this band of snow, weve got some sunshine and cold air in scotland. Cold and frosty here. To the south, weve got some thundery ran pushing into the south west but look how mild this is across these southern areas. Temperature 12 14 degrees in cardiff and london. You arent going to get any snow with that, but further northwards, thats where the cold airjust continues to loiter. As i say, Transport Disruption is more than likely. I suspect the A57 Snake Pass will be shut. The m62 could be affected, maybe parts of the m16 in cumbria and the A74m In Southern Scotland all areas that could see some issues. Now, we are not done with the snow just there because as we go through the night time, tuesday night and into the early part of wednesday, the snow pushes northwards into scotland. Heavy rain across Southern England could bring a risk of some localised flooding. Could see some localised flooding from the rain in north west england, as well. Wednesday, weve got more snow to come in scotland, perhaps the heaviest migrating north of the central belt, causing some Transport Disruption here. But its turning milder across Northern England, temperatures about 9 degrees in liverpool and hull. Still around double figures, 10 degrees or so in london and cardiff. So quite a mild spell of weather, really, across Southern Parts of england, and that means that whats coming next week may well come as something of a rude shock. Thats the latest. This is bbc news my name is mike embley. Our top stories the us condemns the Military Coup in myanmar as a direct assault on democracy and threatens to re impose sanctions. The uk government promises to Come Down Hard to stop the spread of the South African variant of the coronavirus. President biden meets republicans senators to try and agree a bi partisan compromise on his stimulus package. The price of silver reaches its highest level in almost 11 years as an army of small investors take a shine to the precious metal. And storm 0rlena hits americas east coast with heavy snowfall it could be one of the worst in years
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